Till now the telecom companies can share only passive infrastructure such as towers. In active infrastructure the players would be able to share antenna and mobile exchanges among others.
"Newer technologies are developing where certain elements of the network infrastructure can be shared to bring down the cost and decrease the roll-out time," Chandra Prakash, member (Technology), department of telecommunication, said in his address to industry players at TAIPA event.
He added that DoT is considering allowing active infrastructure sharing under new licensing regime.
Telecom infrastructure providers come under Infrastructure Provider-I category identified by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in 2000.
At present, IP-I, is not permitted to set up or install Radio Access Network (part of active infrastructure) of its own, as it not assigned spectrum and accordingly not granted the Wireless Telegraphy licence.
Trai has proposed to bring IP-I players under licence regime and permit them to provide both passive and active infrastructure, independent of the service providers.
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