Trai pushes for spectrum sharing among telcos in bid to promote optimum resource utilisation
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has recommended the use of active and passive infrastructure sharing among telecom service licensees, in a bid to promote optimum resource utilisation.
The regulator Wednesday also recommended inter-band spectrum sharing between service providers in a licensed service area (LSA), along with suggesting exploring the possibility of allowing service providers to access globally harmonised spectrum bands assigned to government agencies or other non-telecom entities through authorised shared access (ASA) technique-based spectrum-sharing.
The authority also recommended conditions for spectrum sharing, trading and leasing, which has been permitted under the new Telecommunications Act, 2023.
Presently, sharing of active infrastructure is limited to antenna, feeder cable, Node B, Radio Access Network (RAN) and transmission system only.
The telecom regulator has now allowed sharing of all active infrastructure elements, including core network elements owned, established and operated by telecom service providers (TSPs) with all types of telecom service licensees, as per the scope of their services.
However, the regulator said sharing of core network elements cannot be done if the number of independent core networks for a particular telecom service is reduced to less than two by such sharing.
As for passive infrastructure, operators can already share elements such as building, tower, electrical equipment including battery and power plant, dark fiber, duct space, right of way,
