Trai broadens scope of telecom infra providers

Kolkata: The sector regulator has broadened the scope of telecom infrastructure or `tower service’ providers, recommending that they be allowed to engage in partial active infrastructure sharing, limited to radio access network (RAN) gear only and not licensed spectrum resources.

“Multi-operator radio access network (MORAN) sharing, which is a form of RAN sharing, would be permitted under the proposed enhancement of scope of infrastructure providers Category-I registration,” wherein “only RAN equipment is shared but not spectrum,” the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in its recommendations Friday on widening the operational scope of telecom tower companies.

The RAN sharing, it said, “is a form of active-sharing” but the “IP-I registration holder “(read: telecom tower company) should not be eligible to apply for assignment of any kind of licenced spectrum”.