TRAI seeks view on sharing of core telecom network, inter-band spectrum sharing - what does it mean?

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday sought public comments on sharing of core components of telecom networks, sharing of spectrum in different bands etc to reduce capital and operational cost of service providers.

The Department of Telecommunications has informed TRAI that to promote optimum resource utilization among the licensees, it is proposed to allow sharing of all kinds of telecom infrastructure and network elements among all categories of service providers.

"This consultation paper has been prepared to discuss and deliberate the issues related to telecommunication infrastructure sharing, spectrum sharing and spectrum leasing," the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in "Consultation Paper on Telecommunication Infrastructure Sharing, Spectrum Sharing, and Spectrum Leasing".

At present, active infrastructure sharing is limited to antenna, radio access network, base stations, feeder cable and transmission system.

Sharing of infrastructure related to Wi-Fi equipment such as Wi-Fi router, Access Point etc is also allowed. The government allows sharing of spectrum within the same frequency band among mobile service providers.

"In case the scope of infrastructure sharing is enhanced to include all the network elements across all licenses/ authorizations, it is expected that it will help in increasing the utilization of network elements, and in bringing down the cost (both capital cost and operating cost) of the network," TRAI said.

The regulator said that a proposition could be that all the network elements (including core network elements) may be permitted to be shared among licensees, not only for wireless networks but also for wireline networks.

TRAI has fixed February 10 as the last date for the comments and February 24 for the counter-comments.

With PTI Inputs