DoT allows sharing of active telecom infrastructure

The government has allowed sharing of active telecom infrastructure like antennas, feeder cables 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 Telecommunications 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.

The government has already allowed sharing of spectrum among telecom operators, which will result in lowering costs and utilisation 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," Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd chairman and managing director Anupam Shrivastava said.

This could be a game changer in terms of carrier-to-carrier relationships and could greatly improve the service provided by the networks, thus directly impacting the end user.

This will also ensure that newer networks/towers are rolled out faster and save costs for network operators.