TAIPA celebrates 1st Anniversary

The telecom infrastructure industry, operators and regulators united to deliberate upon the impact, and future of the emerging sector in India. A large gathering from the telecom companies and government officials from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Department of Information and Technology (DiT) were present during the first anniversary celebration of the Telecom Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA).

Kapil Sibal, Hon'ble Union Minister of Communications & IT, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India inaugrated the event and commended the initiatives taken by the association. Addressing the industry he said, “As a society, we appreciate what is moving and not what is static. This industry is the backbone of mobile telephony and has enormous potential of reaching the masses”. Taking up the financial concerns of the tower companies''.

“Tower sector should be treated by the government as an infrastructure, and banks should give loans on priority basis”. Commenting on other areas, he said, “to meet the power target of 70,000 MW there is no other alternative but to use solar energy, for which he will work with the Ministry of Science & Technology and Ministry of New & Renewable Energy”he added.

Akhil Gupta, Chairman, TAIPA remarked, “The towers and infrastructure industry is based on the fundamental principle of promoting the concept of sharing of this critical infrastructure among all operators on a non-discriminatory basis. This cost effective backbone, has enabled the telecom operators to provide affordable services to the common man across India resulting in over 800 million customers nation-wide, and ushering in a true revolution”.

Mahesh Uppal (Com First India) moderated an interactive discussion panel which comprised of industry experts like Mr. Akshay Grover, Associate Vice President (Ernst & Young); Mr. Amit Sharma, Vice-Chairman, Media & Communication(TAIPA);Mr. Arun Kapur, Vice Chairman- Strategy & Regulatory (TAIPA); Mr.Prakash Ranjalkar, Vice Chairman — Finance & Commercial (TAIPA); Mr. T.V. Ramachandran, Resident Director- Regulatory Affairs & Government Relations (Vodafone Essar) and Mr. Yogesh Malik, Chief Operating Officer (Uninor).They discussed how to further leverage this readily available infrastructure, inorder to overcome the challenges faced by the industry.

TAIPA intends to take up industry matters and issues pertaining to grant of 'Critical Industry' status to the telecom infrastructure industry, tax holidays, uniform tower zoning guidelines for municipalities and state governments, power connection on priority basis in rural areas, and clarity on the RESCO model for energizing telecom infrastructure.TAIPA welcomed BSNL as their new member on the occasion.