In a bid to address a long-pending industry issue, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has finally issued recommendations for promoting active and passive infrastructure sharing. The recommendations are aimed at ensuring optimum resource utilisation in the sector. As per the regulator’s recommendations on “Telecommunication infrastructure sharing, spectrum sharing, and spectrum leasing”, telecom licensees should be allowed to share passive infrastructure such as buildings, towers, electrical equipment including batteries and power plants, dark fibre, duct space and right of way, owned, established and operated by them under their respective licences with all types of telecommunication service licensees. In terms of active infrastructure sharing, TRAI recommends sharing of all types of active infrastructure elements owned, established and operated by telecom licensees under the respective licences as per the scope of their services. Further, TRAI has suggested mandating the sharing of passive infrastructure laid under Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund projects with at least two other telecom service providers. Moreover, inter-band access spectrum sharing between service providers in a licensed service area has been suggested. These recommendations will now be presented to the Digital Communications Commission, the highest decision-making body of the Department of Telecommunications. Once implemented, these will help telecom service providers usher in greater cost efficiencies and improve the time to market. Furthermore, the recommendations on mandatory sharing of passive infrastructure laid under USO Fund projects would help extend the benefits of telecommunication coverage in under-served areas to more than one telecom service provider through effective utilisation of government-funded infrastructure. Overall, these recommendations are expected to help foster a more resource efficient and competitive telecom market, offering better coverage and service quality to customers.