The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued its recommendations on “Telecommunication infrastructure sharing, spectrum sharing, and spectrum leasing.”

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), through its letter dated December 7, 2021 had requested TRAI to provide recommendations on allowing sharing of core network elements also such as mobile switching centre (MSC), home location register (HLR) etc., among telecom operators. Subsequently, DoT through its letter dated February 10, 2022, informed that to promote optimum resource utilisation among the licencees, it is proposed to allow sharing of all kinds of telecom infrastructure and network elements among all categories of service providers licensed under the Section 4 of Indian Telegraph, Act, 1885 for provision of authorised telecom services, and requested TRAI to submit its recommendations on the subject.

Considering the request of stakeholders to permit inter-band spectrum sharing and leasing of spectrum in the country, TRAI decided to take up the issues related to spectrum sharing and leasing of spectrum along with the issues related to the infrastructure sharing in the stakeholders’ consultation. On January 13, 2023, TRAI issued a consultation paper on telecommunication infrastructure sharing, spectrum sharing, and spectrum leasing for soliciting comments! counter comments from stakeholders.

Based on the comments and counter comments received from stakeholders, TRAI has finalised the recommendations. The salient features of the recommendations are as follows:

  • Telecommunication service licencees should be allowed to share the passive infrastructure such as building, tower, electrical equipment including battery and power plant, dark fibre, duct space, Right of Way, etc. owned, established, and operated by them under the respective licences with all types of telecommunication service licencees.
  • Telecommunication service licencees should be allowed to share all types of active infrastructure elements owned, established, and operated by them under respective licences with all types of telecommunication service licencees as per the scope of their services.
  • In the future projects of Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) under the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 (or Digital Bharat Nidhi under the Telecommunications Act, 2023), DoT should include a provision in the agreement with the universal service provider (USP) that the USP shall not refuse to share the passive infrastructure laid under the project to at least two other telecom service providers on a transparent and non-discriminatory basis.
  • In the already assigned projects of USOF, DoT should explore the feasibility of issuing instructions to such USPs that the USP shall not refuse to share the passive infrastructure laid under the project with at least two other telecom service providers (TSPs) on a transparent and non-discriminatory basis.
  • In the interest of consumers, a TSP, which has built mobile network infrastructure in the remote and far-flung areas of the country with full or partial funding from the government under USOF (or Digital Bharat Nidhi), should be mandated to allow roaming to other TSPs on its network in such remote and far-flung areas initially for a period of three years.
  • Inter-band access spectrum sharing between access service providers [which may be implemented either by way of pooling of access spectrum held by the participating access providers in different frequency bands through common radio access networks, or by way of allowing the partnering access service providers to use the radio access networks of each other operating in the shared frequency band(s)] in an internet security and acceleration (ISA) should be permitted.
  • DoT should explore the possibility of implementing authorised shared access (ASA) technique-based spectrum sharing in India, under which, the spectrum assigned to government agencies or other entities (non-TSPs) in the globally harmonised spectrum bands for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) services, can be assigned to access service providers as secondary users.
  • A field trial of ASA technique-based spectrum sharing between the willing access service providers should be conducted under the supervision of DoT.
  • The leasing of access spectrum should be permitted among access service providers.

The implementation of the recommendations on telecommunication infrastructure sharing will help TSPs in greater cost efficiencies and improved time to market. Furthermore, the recommendations on mandatory sharing of passive infrastructure laid under the USOF projects are aimed at extending the benefits of telecommunication coverage in underserved areas to more than one TSPs through effective utilisation of the government funded infrastructure.