Infrastructure Sharing: Case Study India
Infrastructure Sharing: Case Study India
Infrastructure Sharing: Case Study India
Case Study India
ITU ASP COE Workshop
on
Infrastructure Sharing
31 August --3
3 September 2010
Bangkok, Thailand
Rakesh Kumar Gujral,
Deputy Advisor
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
1
Overview
Brief on Indian Telecom Industry
Infrastructure Sharing: Need & Scope
Overview
Infrastructure Sharing in practice
• Policy and Regulatory initiatives
• Present Status
Conclusions
2
Indian Telecom Scenario (June’10)
Snapshot India
Population 1.17 billion
Geographical area 3.28 million Sq. Kms
Telecom subscribers 671.69 million
Teledensity 56.83 %
Fixed line subscriber 36.18 million
Wireless subscriber 635.51 million
Monthly mobile additions 17.98 million
Broadband subscribers 9.45 million
3
Licensing Framework
• India is divided into 22 Service
Telecom Licensing Framework
Areas/Circles Jammu &
Kashmir
Himachal
Pradesh
DELHI
Rajasthan Uttar
Pradesh E
Bihar
• Inter Circle calls to be routed Gujarat Madhya
West
Bengal
Pradesh
through National Long Distance
Orissa KOLKATA
Operator. Maharashtra
MUMBAI
Andhra
Pradesh
C Circles
4
Telecom Licensing Framework (Contd.)
Main Telecom Licence
Licensor
Basic Service Cellular Mobile
Dept of Telecom
Unified Access Service
Regulator
Telecom Regulatory National Long Distance
Authority of India
International Long Distance
Judiciary
Telecom Dispute Internet Service Provider
Settlement Appellate
Tribunal
5
Telecom Licensing Framework (Contd.) Licence Telecom Services Provided No. of Licencees
2
Basic Service Wireline Telephony, WLL
Cellular Mobile 38
Wireless Telephony
Telecom Service
Access service including Wire line, Wireless
Unified Access Telephony, Internet access services, Triple 240
Service Play including IPTV
National Long Domestic Long Distance service, IP‐VPN, 29
Distance Domestic Leased Circuits
International Long Distance service, IP‐VPN,
International IPLC 24
Long Distance
Internet Access Service, Restricted Internet
Internet Service telephony
373
Provider
6
Telecom Licensing Framework (Contd.) Aug.
Aug.2000
2000
Infrastructure
Provider
IP-II
IP-II
IP-I
IP-I • can lease / rent out
• can provide assets /sell end to end
such as Dark Fibre, bandwidth
Right of Way, Duct • Indian registered
space & Tower companies are eligible
• Permission through to apply
simple registration • 74% FDI
• No License Fee Issuance discontinued
(Dec 2005)
• 100% FDI • NLD entry fee reduced
Scope Enhanced (Rs.1 billion to Rs 25 Mn)
• NLD Licence fee reduced
(March 2009)
(15% to 6% of AGR)
• Can create active
• IP-II allowed to migrate
infrastructure, if
to NLD
created on behalf
of licencee
7
Tariffs
• Regulated in the initial days.
• After emergence of competition‐
brought under forbearance except roaming, leased circuits and
rural fixed line.
Tariffs and IUC
Interconnection Usage Charges
• Interconnection Usage charges (IUC) were specified by TRAI for
inter‐operator payments.
• Governed by IUC Regulations.
• Recent amendment dated 9th March 2009 (effective from
01.04.2009)
8
Existing Interconnection Usage Charge
Origination Charge Under Forbearance
voice calls
Termination charge for 40 paise per minute (about 8 Cents/minute)
incoming international
calls
Domestic Carriage charge Ceiling of Rs 0.65 per minute
(about 13 Cents/minute)
International Carriage Under Forbearance.
Charge
IUC for SMS Under forbearance. However, these charges
should be transparent, reciprocal and non‐
discriminatory.
9
ARPU & MOU of Mobile Service Providers (QE March 2010)
GSM Subscriber 82%
CDMA Subscribers 18%
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) GSM INR 131
ARPU & MOU
(about 2.79 USD)
Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) CDMA INR 76
(about 1.62 USD)
Minutes of Usage (MOU) GSM 410 Minute
Minutes of Usage (MOU) CDMA 307 Minute
10
Service Provider wise market share of Wireless services (As on
30.06.2010)
Mobile Network
11
Explosive mobile subscriber growth requires:
Need for Infrastructure Sharing
• New Infrastructure like towers etc Disturb esthetic of
Disturb esthetic of
Cities
• Additional space for hosting of towers Cities
• Additional spectrum
• More interconnection.
Underserved areas coverage
The Infrastructure
answer Sharing
is
12
Infrastructure Sharing ‐ Refers to the sharing of resources
and/ or network facilities between one or more operators.
Infrastructure Sharing
Improve Reduce
Infrastructure
Utilization Sharing
Duplication
QoS Objectives Cost
For
Should not affect ForSubscriber:
Subscriber:
Affordable
Affordable
For
ForService
Service Infrastructure Development Tariffs
Providers:
Providers: Tariffs
Faster
Faster
Rollout
Rollout
13
Infrastructure Sharing in Practice
Copper
Infrastructure
Sharing
Spectrum
Modes
Fiber
14
Sharing of Copper (Local loop)
• Growth was steady over the years Tata
3%
Shyam HFCL
Bharti
0.1% 9%
until around 2004. 0.5%
• Limited Availability of copper. 98.77
52.2241.54 40.75 39.42
41.43 37.96 36.96
• The growth in Copper network is
dismal. 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Wireline Wireless
15
Mobile Network
Passive
Passive
Infrastructure
Infrastructure Active
Active
Mobile Network
Backhaul
Backhaul Infrastructure
Infrastructure
16
Mobile Network (Contd..)
Passive Site Sharing: Operators acquire and rent a common site to host
the Base Transceiver Station (BTS) space in shelter or transmission
room, real estate space etc.
z Financial support for creation of infrastructure in rural and far
flung areas was recommended.
z Use of non conventional energy sources in areas where electric
power supply is erratic should be encourage.
Recommendations accepted by the Government
Guidelines released in April 2008
18
PROJECT MOST
• To encourage tower sharing among the operators,
Govt. of India initiated project “Mobile Operator
Tower Sharing
Shared Tower (MOST)” in March 2006.
Flagship Sight: Delhi High court
2 Roof‐top Towers of 15 meter height.
First Tower
‐3 Operator Sharing (GSM) ‐Airtel, Hutch & Idea
‐ Single Tower supporting 9 GSM & 3 Microwave antenna.
Second Tower
– 3 Operators Sharing (1 GSM + 2 CDMA) (MTNL, Reliance & TTSL)
PROJECT MOST
Ground Based Towers of 40 Meter
height
Tower Sharing (Contd..)
6 Operator Sharing
(4 GSM + 2 CDMA) Airtel, Hutch, Idea,
MTNL, Reliance & TTSL
Single Tower supporting 12 GSM, 6
CDMA & 6 Microwave Antennas
Tower Design Certified by IIT, Delhi
Tower Sharing
• Estimated requirement of towers is
0.5 million by 2015.
• Tower infrastructure is increasingly
Tower Sharing
22
Tower camouflaged as a tree
Innovations in Tower Designing
Tower Tube
The Wall Street Journal
Technology Innovation Award 2008
23
Increased level of sharing: Issues
• Large no. of antennas on a tower: concern of radiation
Tower Sharing (Contd..)
• Load Bearing Capacity
• Installed on the roof top: Safety issues
• Permission from Local Civic Authorities.
• Right of way (ROW) for tower installation and laying of backhaul
network.
• Pollution generated through DG sets.
TRAI is in the process of issuing consultation paper on the
above issues.
24
• With the prior permission of the licensor
• Permission for max. 5 years. No renewal.
Sharing of Spectrum • In the same licence service area.
• Existing license conditions • Only between the parties so long as each of
whom does not hold more than 4.4/2.5 MHz
do not allow Spectrum
of spectrum (GSM/CDMA).
sharing.
Spectrum Sharing
• Only if there are at least six operators in the
• TRAI in its LSA, post‐sharing arrangement.
recommendations dated • Not permitted among licensees having 3G
11th May 2010 spectrum.
reconsidered this issue. • Leasing not permitted.
• Will deemed to be considered sharing their
entire spectrum, for the purpose of charging.
• TRAI recommended that
spectrum sharing be • Both the parties will pay the prorated current
allowed (limited to access price for spectrum beyond 6.2/5 MHz, in the
ratio of the spectrum held by them
spectrum only), subject to individually.
• Spectrum usage charges will be levied on
both, but on the total spectrum held by both
the operators together.
25
National Roaming
• Roaming: Ability for a cellular subscriber to make & receive calls
and have access to services, when travelling outside the
geographical coverage area of the home network by means of using
a visited network.
National Roaming
• When home network and visited network are both in the same
country, it is called national roaming.
• National roaming is relevant for India as the licences are service
area wise.
26
Intra Circle Roaming
• Intra Circle Roaming is permitted since June 2008.
Intra Circle Roaming
27
3G and BWA
• In India, auctions for 3G and BWA has been recently
completed.
• Apart from State owned PSU, three private operators in a
service area have been given spectrum of 5Mhz for 3G.
3G & BWA
28
Inter operator Sharing of IN Platform
Intelligent Network: Telecommunication Network Architecture
for provisioning of advanced Services which are not normally
available in the switching systems.
e.g. Virtual Calling Cards (VCC), Free phone services,
IN Platform Sharing
Televoting etc.
• Prior to issue of IN services Regulation, the subscribers were
able to access the IN services of their own Access Service
Provider.
• To ensure that subscriber should be able to access, IN
services of all other service providers, TRAI issued Intelligent
Network Services in Multi Operator Multi Service Scenario
Regulations, 2006 (13 of 2006) in November 2006.
• For free phone services, most of the service providers have
entered into arrangements on mutual agreement basis
• TRAI has specified origination charge for IN based free phone
service on 5th December, 2007.
29
Calling Cards by Long Distance Service Providers
• To provide choice to the consumer to select long distance
IN Platform Sharing (Contd..)
operator
• To further enhance competition
• TRAI has recommended to the DOT in August 2008 to allow
NLDOs /ILDOs to have direct access to consumers for provision
of national and international voice telephony services,
respectively, through calling cards.
• Recommendations accepted by the Government.
• NLD/ILD license amended accordingly (August 2009).
30
Collocation facilities
• For the purposes of providing interconnection, certain
equipment has to be placed or collocated at the one service
provider’s exchange by the other service provider.
• Types: (a) Physical Collocation (b) Virtual Collocation
• The Collocation facilities include:
• Building Space
Collocation
• Power
• Environmental Services
• Security
• Site maintenance
• To frame guidelines so that the fixation of Collocation
Charges by service providers is not done arbitrarily and is
based on use of sound criteria, TRAI issued a consultation
paper on “Collocation Charges” (March 2010).
• OHD held on 6/8/2010, Service Providers assured to
discuss amongst themselves and come back with
consensus on charges.
31
PoP of PoP of PoP of PoP of
Access NLDO Access
Provider NLDO Trunk Provider
Access Access
Segment Segment Segment
Sharing of Domestic Leased Circuit
Local Lead Local Lead
Customer Customer
PoP PoP
Customer Site
End-to-End
Domestic Leased
Circuit (DLC)
Domestic Leased Circuits
• As on date, domestic bandwidth can be provided to end user by Access
Provider or NLDO.
• Tariffs for DLC are regulated and prescribed in TTO.
• TRAI issued DLC Regulations on 14th September 2007 :
• To ensure transparency, reasonableness
• To allow provision of DLC/local lead in a non‐discriminatory
manner
32
Optical Fiber
Advantages:
9 Necessary to support high bandwidth requirement in Core
network.
9 Also desirable in access network
9 Reliable, stable and long term solution.
Fiber Sharing
9 Can provide enormous bandwidth to support Broadband.
9 Capacity of the Optical fiber to carry information can be
enormously enhanced by just upgrading the end equipments.
• Presently about 7,50,000 route Km of optical fiber network is
available in India.
• It includes 5,00,000 route Km optical fiber network of state
owned BSNL.
• TRAI’s consultation paper dated 10.06.2010 on “National
Broadband plan” emphasized the need to build “National Optical
Fiber Network”, which extends up to village level.
• National Optical Fiber Network is proposed to be shared among
operators.
33
Proposed “National Optical Fiber Network”
Options for funding
Fiber Sharing (Contd..)
TRAI estimated cost for covering all villages with optical fiber
(excluding RoW Cost) Rs 323 billion (Approx).
Options suggested for funding in the consultation paper:
• Funding through USOF (if labour cost can be managed
through other ongoing projects).
• Creation of an Autonomous National Level Agency.
‐ All Optical fiber network resources may be handled by this
agency for laying, maintenance and leasing purposes.
‐ Such OF structure shall be shared by all Public/ Private users.
• PPP
• Consortium
34
IPLC & Resale
TRAI has prescribed tariffs for IPLC in TTO.
Earlier, IPLC can be provided only by International Long Distance Operators
(ILDOs).
To promote competition and affordability in International Private Leased
Circuits (IPLC) Segment TRAI recommended for Resale in IPLC Segment.
“Resale” is the sale or lease of telecom services to an end consumer
on retail basis after leasing from a telecom service provider on
commercial basis at wholesale prices.
IPLC
The Resellers can access the subscribers for provision of IPLC only
and not for any other purpose.
Promote non‐facility / minimum facility based competition
Recommendations accepted by Licensor
Licence agreement for Resale of IPLC Service may be seen at
http://www.dot.gov.in/Resale%20of%20IPLC/Resale%20of%20IPLC‐index.htm
35
Sharing At Submarine Cable Landing Station
• A number of submarine cables are landing or terminating in India
at CLS operated and managed by few ILDOs.
Capacities of Submarine Cables in India (October 2006)
Cable Landing Station
36
Sharing At Submarine Cable Landing Station
• Access to these CLS by other licensees is necessary for
Cable Landing Station(Contd..)
‐ creating a conducive environment &
‐ boosting competition in the international bandwidth
connectivity.
• TRAI issued Regulations on “International Telecommunication
Access to Essential Facilities at Cable Landing Stations
Regulations, 2007” on 7th June 2007.
• The regulations provides for
- Time limit for provision of access, collocation and landing facilities.
‐ The owners of CLS are mandated to publish “Cable Landing
Station – Reference Interconnect Offer (CLS‐RIO)” with the
approval of the Authority.
‐ Transparent charges for access, collocation and landing facilities;
37
National Internet Exchange Of India (NIXI)
• Set up on the recommendation of TRAI by Department of
Information Technology (DIT), Government of India in 2003.
• Purpose : To facilitate exchange of Internet traffic originated and
destined within the country among peering Internet Service
Internet Exchange
Provider (ISP) members.
• The key objective of NIXI is to:
• enable domestic bandwidth utilization for routing of the
domestic traffic.
• improvement in QoS in terms of lower latency and
number of hops.
• help to effectively utilize International Internet
bandwidth for routing International Internet traffic.
• TRAI also recommended to improve effectiveness of NIXI, on 20th
April 2007.
• Presently 7 nodes of NIXI are operational and 2 are underway.
(More details may be seen at www.nixi.in ).
38
USO Fund & Infrastructure Sharing
About 71% of the population resides in rural areas.
Liberalization & Competition is not enough for rural areas
penetration due to:
• Scattered Population
• Low income
• Low Usage
USO Fund
• Lack of Industry/ Commercial User
• Lack of Infrastructure, Road, Power etc
• Difficult Terrain
• Higher CAPEX & OPEX and Low ARPU
• Constrains in both supply and demand side
• Role of USO is to provide Access in rural and remote areas at
affordable rates.
• In India, USO Fund was setup in 2002.
• Encourage sharing of Infrastructure at discounted rates is one of
the way adopted by USO Administrators to fulfill their Role.
39
Infrastructure Support For Mobile Services
• One of the project supported by USO is Infrastructure support
Support from USO Fund
for mobile services.
• This project was started in October 2006 to create
infrastructure for rolling out mobile services in rural areas.
• Project consists of two parts:
40
Infrastructure Support For Mobile Services
Part‐ I
• The Infrastructure Provider (IP) shall be solely responsible to set
Support from USO Fund
up, operate and maintain infrastructure site.
• The infrastructure so created shall be shared by maximum 3
USPs to provide mobile services by installing necessary
equipments.
• Subsidy is payable for a maximum period of 5 years within the
validity period of agreement.
• IP shall enter into SLA with the USPs for 5 years period to ensure
continued provision of services.
• IP shall not charge any rental from the USPs during this period.
• The new tower/ infrastructure sites shall not be installed within
3 Km radius of already installed by any access provider for
providing fixed wireless or mobile services.
41
Conclusions
• In countries, where the number of operators are
considerably large, the environment is conducive for
infrastructure sharing.
• Regulators and policy makers should encourage
sharing of infrastructure.
• Passive infrastructure sharing among service providers
Conclusions
42
Conclusions
• Use of non conventional energy sources must be
encouraged.
• Financial support for creation of infrastructure in rural
and far flung areas.
Conclusions
43
Thank You
R K Gujral
Deputy Advisor
(Interconnection & Fixed Networks)
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
J.L. Nehru Marg, New Delhi – 110002
Email: rkgtrai@gmail.com
9/2/2010 TRAI 44
44