The Hindu : Business : Mobile infrastructure sharing to be extended to rural areas

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Thursday, Jul 06, 2006

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Mobile infrastructure sharing to be extended to rural areas

Special Correspondent

Concept in vogue in six cell sites in the national capital

— Photo: Anu Pushkarna

MAKING THE MOST: Union Minister of Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran, along with Jaipal Reddy, Minister of Urban Development, at a conference in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI: Minister for Communication and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran on Wednesday supported the sharing of "passive infrastructure'' like towers by telecom operators, as it would save significant resources to finance further rollouts, enhance aesthetics of the environment and lower the costs per operator. The six cell-sites located in different parts of the national capital that were being successfully shared by mobile operators under "Project MOST'' (mobile operators shared towers) was proof that the concept could be replicated in other parts of the country, he said at an industry meet on shared cellular infrastructure.

Recalling his first meeting with telecom operators on this issue in March, Mr. Maran said the "Project MOST'' team had brought together GSM and CDMA operators, public and private sectors players and independent infrastructure providers to establish infrastructure on a sharing basis.

"With Indian operators offering one of the lowest mobile tariffs in the world, we in India have to look at all possible solutions to improve our cost efficiencies and offer increasingly affordable services to our customers.'' Shared towers would reduce the costs of the operators and the customers would be able to get quality services at affordable prices.

Giving details of "Project MOST", the Minister said shared infrastructure for mobile roll out would be launched shortly in rural areas too. For that, a detailed exercise was being undertaken to identify villages in the rural and remote areas not covered by wireless signals and with Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) assistance. It was proposed to create shared infrastructure to enable telecom service providers provide cell phones in the identified rural areas. Between 8,000 and 10,000 towers were likely to be set up and this would ensure that almost 85 per cent of the area of the country was covered by wireless signal after completion of the project.

In his inaugural address, Union Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy asked telecom operators to extend the concept of shared passive infrastructure to rural areas. Companies should make most of the "Project MOST'' and his Ministry would offer all necessary help in this regard. The Chairman of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), Sanjeev Agha, the COAI Director General, T. V. Ramachandran, and the General Secretary of the Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India, S. C. Khanna, also spoke on the occasion.

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