The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday released a consultation paper on ‘Telecommunication Infrastructure Sharing, Spectrum Sharing, and Spectrum Leasing’.

It has sought comments on issues such as whether inter-band access spectrum sharing among the access service providers should be permitted in the country to improve the services.

“In case, it is decided to permit inter-band access spectrum sharing among access service providers, then what measures should be put in place to avoid any potential adverse impact on competition and dynamics of spectrum auction,” the TRAI said in the consultation paper.

The Department of Telecommunications on February 10 last year, informed TRAI that to promote optimum resource utilisation among the licensees, it is proposed to allow sharing of all kinds of telecom infrastructure and network elements among all categories of service providers.

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Considering the request of stakeholders to permit inter-band spectrum sharing and leasing of the spectrum, the issues related to spectrum sharing and leasing of the spectrum have also been taken up along with the issues relating to infrastructure sharing, the authority said.

Also, it seeks comments on whether passive infrastructure sharing should be permitted across all telecommunication service licenses/authorisations, and whether other active infrastructure elements deployed by service providers under various licenses/authorisations may be shared among licensees of telecommunication services, which are not currently permitted to be shared.

Further, to improve connectivity issues faced by the subscribers in remote areas of the country, the authority asked what measures could be taken to encourage roaming arrangements among telecom service providers (TSPs).

TRAI is seeking written comments on the issues raised in the consultation paper from the stakeholders by February 10 and counter comments by February 24.

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