Infra providers eye tower sharing policy ahead of 5G rollout

New Delhi:As India gears up for the rollout of 5G wireless service, telecom infrastructure providers are pushing for an infrastructure sharing policy to ease the financial burden of an industry facing liquidity challenges.

“Considering the present financial condition of the telecom operators, we feel that the enhanced form of infrastructure sharing that is active infrastructure sharing by IP-1 (infrastructure provider category-1; typically tower companies) is the only way forward for the industry,” said TR Dua, director general, Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (Taipa).

The rollout of 5G will require massive deployment of towers and dense fiberization. The electronic elements—core or intelligence in any network—embodied in base stations and other equipment for mobile networks, access node switches, and management systems for fibre networks are part of active infrastructure.