Indoor call drops and slow data services, which have been major irritants for consumers and a big head­a­c­he for the government, may soon be a thing of past as the telecom department (DoT) has approved a Trai recomm­endation that makes man­datory the sharing of in-bu­ilding infrastructure by telcos and tower companies.

“An effective telecommunications infrastructure is an essential component of any building for its connectivity to the outside world. Telecom services like voice, data and wideband multim­e­dia services are indispensable in the modern society. To improve in-building coverage and to offer quality data rate services, installation of in-building solutions for wir­eless services and laying of line like copper, optical fibre, LAN cables is required,” the regulator had said.

The telecom regulatory authority of India (Trai) had said telecom operators and infrastructure providers sho­u­ld be mandated to share in-building infrastructure, including distributed antennae systems, optical fibre/ copper cables, with other operators in large public plac­es, commercial complexes and residential complexes in “transparent, fair and non-discriminatory manner”.

This was necessitated as Trai had noticed that telecom service providers were indulging in exclusive contracts with owners of buildings in order to prohibit acc­e­ss to other operators. It co­uld be treated as violation of the licence agreement with a minimum of three operators and infrastructure providers to be present in a building.