Telcos’ network roll out costs may rise a tad on fibre duty hike

KOLKATA & MUMBAI: India’s big phone companies could see a marginal 2% rise in their ongoing 4G and future 5G network rollout costs with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposing a hike in basic customs duty on optical fibre and cables to 15% from present 10% in Budget 2019-20.

Telecom infrastructure companies also rued the FM’s proposal, saying the duty hike would derail fiberisation of telecom towers where India is lagging way behind China, US, Japan and Korea, and, in turn, impede future 5G deployments.