The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is believed to be considering permitting active infrastructure sharing in the sector under the National Telecom Policy 2011. This is expected to lower the cost of setting up a network and reducing the time required for rolling out services.
Currently, operators can share only passive infrastructure, such as towers. Sharing active infrastructure would mean sharing antennas, mobile exchanges, etc.
Telecom infrastructure providers are classified under the Infrastructure Provider-I category identified by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in 2000.
Currently, players under this category are not permitted to set up or install a radio access network (which is a part of active infrastructure) of their own, as it they do not hold spectrum and are also not granted a wireless telegraphy (WT) licence.
TRAI has proposed to bring such players under the licence regime and permit them to provide both passive and active infrastructure, independent of the service providers.
