Trai seeks to give telcos better access to buildings

This comes at a time when tension between Trai and telcos has peaked, following the regulator's recent test drive in Delhi

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Monday issued a consultation paper to improve telecom services inside buildings by providing companies unhindered access and encouraging them to use shared infrastructure.

The paper has sought stakeholders' responses on whether the sharing of telecom infrastructure should be made mandatory and what practices should be included in the National Building Code to facilitate equal and unrestricted access for all telecom service providers.

This comes at a time when tension between the telecom regulator and service providers has peaked, following the Trai's recent test drive in Delhi to assess quality of service. Last week, the Trai said all operators except Reliance 2G (second generation) and Vodafone 3G failed its call drop test, while the telecom industry accused the regulator of deliberately conducting the test in problem areas.

With this consultation paper, the regulator seeks to enhance the quality of the telecom service inside residential buildings, malls, hotels and commercial complexes as well as providing telecom companies equal in-building access.

At present, in-building deployment is achieved through commercial agreements between the mobile operators and the building owner or developer or resident welfare association.

"It has come to the notice of the authority that in many areas there are problems in getting the access to buildings. Generally, an infrastructure group or builder enters into an exclusive agreement with one of the service providers for providing telecom services to consumers living or doing business from a particular location," the Trai noted.

"However, in such cases, only that service provider is allowed to lay the telecom infrastructure in the premises and other service providers are denied access, thus creating an artificial barrier," it added.

Only contracted service providers were allowed to install in-building solutions but those service providers, in turn, did not allow others to share them or demanded prohibitively high prices for sharing them, noted Trai. In some cases, building owners allow access to the service providers at exorbitant rates.

"Such practices not only limit competition, they also leave no choice to consumers but to take services from the contracted service provider," it said. "There is a requirement to evolve a framework applicable to in-building facilities to enable the telecom operators to obtain efficient access on reasonable terms," it added. "It is important to ensure that all service providers are able to provide mobile and landline services to all the subscribers without any artificial restrictions or hindrance. The choice of service provider should be made by the subscriber, not by the building owner," it said.

Sharing telecom infrastructure will not only reduce the cost involved, but also spare multiplication of network. To provide equal access inside buildings, the Trai has suggested disallowing service providers and infrastructure providers from entering into exclusive contracts.

Another possible option, the Trai said, could be that the local administration made it mandatory to have adequate provision for ducts, optical fibre and in-building solutions while approving the construction of multiplexes, malls and hotels.

These facilities should not be seen as a "revenue source, but as essential infrastructure, therefore, no charges should levied by the building owner", the Trai said.

The regulatory body has sought suggestions on provisions to facilitate common telecom infrastructure that can be included in the National Building Code, which is in process of being framed by the Bureau of Indian Standards.