COAI welcomes TRAI Recommendations on ‘Use of Street Furniture for Small Cell’

COAI welcomes the TRAI Recommendations on “Use of Street Furniture for Small Cells and Aerial Fibre Deployment”. We believe that these comprehensive and forward-looking recommendations will help expedite the roll-out of 5G across India.

TRAI’s recommendation that DoT should issue advisory to States for mandating that owners of street furniture should share these assets with TSPs/IP-1s for deployment of small cells, subject to structural stability, will enhance the scope for deployment of 5G infrastructure in an expansive manner. Further, all Central Government entities have been recommended to earmark dedicated spaces in their existing and planned buildings for installing Digital infrastructure, thereby enhancing network presence.

TRAI has also recommended that charges paid by one TSP to the other for sharing of infrastructure should be allowed as deduction from Gross revenue for the purpose of levy of Licence Fee. This is a big positive which will incentivise sharing and roll-out of infrastructure.

The measures suggested by TRAI for simplification of SACFA approvals and self-certification for EMF will go a long way in helping service providers roll-out their services.

The recommendation regarding provision of electricity connection under Utility/Industrial tariff, one application for bulk processing of connection requests for multiple sites and One-Bill One-Payment policy for the entire Telecom sector will enable all the sites to be adequately powered all the time, thus ensuring uninterrupted services to the consumers.

TRAI has also recommended the expansion of the scope of the National Broadband Mission (NBM) committee by monitoring the deployment of Small Cell on street furniture, which would provide impetus to the roll-out of 5G in the country.

Overall, the Recommendations are wide-ranging and will have a positive impact on roll-out of digital infrastructure in the country.

CT Bureau