DoT asks telecom firms to share rural infrastructure

DoT’s technical advisors have also assured mobile players that they can share rural infrastructure regardless of their chosen platforms. Therefore, CDMA and GSM players can set up the same shared passive infrastructure for rural areas.

Of late, Department of Telecom (DoT) has come around to the view that in rural areas, mobile infrastructure can be shared among groups of private operators. For this, they will get Universal Service Fund (USF) proceeds after a competitive bidding system.

But to balance the interests of operators already in smaller towns and cities, a bar is likely on sharing infrastructure within municipal limits. Such a bar will ensure that new players do not have unfair advantage compared to existing players in smaller towns.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), mobile network coverage in the country will increase to 75 per cent this year, from roughly 50 per cent today. Though 200 million people had mobile network coverage back in 2004, it remained concentrated in towns and cities.

But to meet the 250 million target, most new growth will be in smaller towns, followed by villages.

DoT and the USO administrator are working out ways to amend the Telegraph Act to fund mobile network sharing.

The bidding system is likely to be finalised this month or in March, but at the same time, DoT’s technical advisors have assured private telecom operators that they will be able to share their infrastructure regardless of platforms.