New Delhi [India], March 26 : The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued its response to the back-reference received from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in respect of TRAI's recommendations dated April 24, 2024 on 'Telecommunication Infrastructure Sharing, Spectrum Sharing, and Spectrum Leasing', a release from the Ministry of Communications said.
Earlier, the DoT, through a reference dated December 7, 2021, under Section 11 (1) (a) of the TRAI Act, 1997, requested TRAI to provide recommendations on allowing the sharing of core network elements such as MSC, HLR, IN, etc. among telecom operators.
Subsequently, DoT, through a reference dated February 10, 2022, mentioning its earlier reference dated December 7, 2021, informed that "to promote optimum resource utilisation among the licensees, it is proposed to allow sharing of all kinds of telecom infrastructure and network elements among all categories of service providers licensed under the Section 4 of Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 for provision of authorised telecom services", and requested TRAI to provide recommendations on the subject.
Considering the request of stakeholders to permit inter-band spectrum sharing and leasing of spectrum in the country, the Authority decided to take up the issues related to spectrum sharing and spectrum leasing along with the issues related to infrastructure sharing in the stakeholders' consultation.
After a comprehensive consultation with stakeholders, TRAI sent its recommendations on 'Telecommunication Infrastructure Sharing, Spectrum Sharing, and Spectrum Leasing' to DoT on April 24, 2024.
Subsequently, DoT, through a back-reference dated February 13, informed TRAI that as per Section 11(1) of the TRAI Act 1997 (as amended), such recommendations on 'Telecommunication Infrastructure Sharing, Spectrum Sharing, and Spectrum Leasing' dated March 24, where the Government has reached a prima-facie conclusion that these recommendations may not be accepted or may need modification are being referred back to TRAI for its reconsideration.
In this regard, after a careful examination, TRAI has sent its response to the back-reference to DoT. TRAI's response to the back-reference has also been placed on the TRAI's website (www.trai.gov.in).