Government allows sharing of active telecom infrastructure

Delhi: Department of Telecom has finally given permission to share antenna, feeder cable and transmission systems.

Earlier, the government had only allowed spectrum sharing among telecom operators.

The government has allowed sharing of active telecom infrastructure like antenna, feeder cable and transmission systems, a move that will lower costs for telecom operators and lead to faster rollout of networks. Earlier, the telecom companies were allowed to share only passive infrastructure such as towers.

 The Department of Telecom has amended the Unified Licence to allow active infrastructure sharing.

“Sharing of active infrastructure amongst service providers based on the mutual agreements entered amongst them is permitted. Active infrastructure sharing will be limited to antenna, feeder cable, Node B, radio access network (RAN) and transmission system only,” DoT said in a notification.

It added the amendment is effective with immediate effect. The government has already allowed sharing of spectrum among telecom operators, which will result in lowering costs and utilization of excess spectrum.

“With sharing of active infrastructure, you don’t require your own antenna, feeder cable etc which will bring down the capital infrastructure,” BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava said.