Telecom infrastructure: 10 key issues to streamline for enabling ease of doing business

NEW DELHI: It is evident to acknowledge the significance of telecom infrastructure and telecommunication services in transforming society into an intelligent knowledge intensive community, according to Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) note.

"While on the other hand, advance technologies such as 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G, IoT, M2M, virtual reality and artificial intelligence etc. is ready to take society on the next level altogether," according to TAPIA , which represents mobile tower companies, has submitted a letter to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)

"However, the Indian telecommunication sector with 1 billion subscribers connected through more than 4,50,000 towers with the gigantic investments of around 4 lakh crore is going through the most critical time witnessing mergers and acquisitions, high licensing fee, losses and hyper-competition etc," the letter said.

"All these factors bludgeoned together is eventually impacting the development of robust telecom infrastructure which is the bedrock for rolling out the advanced technologies as these technologies has no meanings without the critical telecom infrastructure being in place," TIAPA mentioned in its letter

"The Indian government has been very pro-active and some of the major reformatory initiatives have been undertaken especially for the telecommunication sector. The enabling and forward looking policies adopted by the Government of India is duly supported by the industry," it said.

"Considering the overall health of sector, there are 10 keys issues which needs to be streamlined on the urgent basis which will help enabling ‘ease of doing business’ and improving the overall health of the sector.," it added.

Inclusion of Infrastructure players under Right of Way rules, 2016

Allowing IP-1s to create telecom infrastructure on Government land and Buildings

Retrograde Steps & Reclassification of Common Telecom Infrastructure

Inclusion of telecom towers under input tax credit under GST bill

Off-set license fee paid on input services to avoid double taxation

Variance of import duty of Lithium-ion Batteries for Electric Vehicle viz-a-vis Telecom Tower application

Dismissing property tax on mobile towers

Extending infrastructure benefits

Uniform tower installation policy in states

Streamlining on ground operational challenges