COAI bats for industrial electricity tariff rates for telecom infra; says cost benefits will spur 5G deployments

Telcos’ body COAI has made a strong plea that the telecom sector be charged industrial tariffs for electricity and not commercial rates, and that power connections be expeditiously provided to telecom infrastructure facilities.

It said doing so was important given the essential nature of services and socio-economic benefits that accrue across multiple sectors from faster 5G deployments.

COAI – whose members include telecom operators like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea – has also batted for the sector to be provided uninterrupted 24×7 power supply.

“Telecom is an infrastructure industry, but we are still being charged at commercial rates for power. So we don’t get the benefits,” SP Kochhar, Director General of Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI) told PTI.