Trai rules out mandatory sharing of infrastructure

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is understood to have ruled out mandatory sharing of infrastructure among mobile operators and has instead proposed allowing active networks like antennae, feeder, cables and transmission equipment to be shared among them.

In its upcoming recommendations to be announced next week, the regulator has proposed that active infrastructure cannot be ruled out and it should always be looked at as an option.

Active infrastructure sharing will reduce the costs of setting up network for the operators while at the same time it will help in faster roll-outs. "We had asked the questions whether active infrastructure sharing should be allowed or not and operators had favoured the idea in different ways," a senior Trai official said in the consultation paper.

Trai said the operators might want to look at the possibility of moving beyond passive infrastructure sharing and share active infrastructure to reduce roll-out costs. It pointed out that currently infrastructure sharing was taking place mostly on a voluntary basis worked between the operators.