Mumbai: India’s three private telcos are at odds on interband spectrum sharing<\/a>, as proposed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India<\/a> (Trai) in a recent consultation paper, with Bharti Airtel<\/a> and Vodafone Idea<\/a> in favour, and Reliance Jio<\/a> in the opposing camp.
The telcos also stand divided on the matter of mandatory sharing of infrastructure developed under the Universal Service Obligation Fund<\/a> (USOF) projects, with Jio<\/a> and Airtel<\/a> opposing the proposal, and Vi supporting it.
“Allowing interband spectrum sharing could (negatively) impact capex and opex allotted to network infrastructure,” Mahipal Singh, vice president, regulatory affairs, Reliance<\/a> Jio, said Wednesday, at an open house discussion on the issues raised in the consultation paper.
In its comments on the discussion paper on Telecommunication Infrastructure Sharing, Spectrum Sharing, and Spectrum Leasing floated by the regulator at the start of the year, Jio said allowing interband spectrum sharing would be anti-competitive and could affect future auctions, leading to losses for the national exchequer.
“We submit that interband spectrum sharing should be permitted, especially in the lower frequency bands,” Ajay Mehta, vice president, TRAI policy and operations, Vodafone Idea said.
Both Vi and Airtel had argued that sharing of interband spectrum would improve spectral efficiency and quality of service over existing deployed networks and should be permitted considering spectrum is a “precious national resource.”
However, the three agreed that spectrum leasing should be allowed as it will not only improve quality of service, but also help monetise unused spectrum.
The regulator had also asked stakeholders to share views on imposing mandatory sharing of digital infrastructure developed through USO funding. Jio reiterated its stance that there should be no compulsion to share such infrastructure.
Vi’s Mehta explained that USOF projects are usually undertaken in areas where players have not individually invested for lack of commercial viability.
“Hence sharing infrastructure developed through USOF in such places would help drive consumption which will eventually bring in more network infrastructure investments once companies see business cases (there),” he added.
The discussion also touched upon ways to improve connectivity in far flung and remote areas. Jio urged the regulator to have more USOF projects in remote areas since one operator enabling roaming services in said area is not a viable long-term solution.
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