In an event organised by the Department of Telecommunications, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Communications, Electronics & IT and Railways released amendment in the Indian Telegraph Right of Way (RoW) Rules, 2016 to facilitate faster and easier deployment of Telecom Infrastructure and launched a new 5G RoW application ‘form’ on GatiShakti Sanchar Portal to enable faster 5G roll-out in India. Shri K Rajaraman, Chairman DCC & Secretary (T), senior officials of Department of Telecommunications and representatives of industry were present.
In his address, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw mentioned about the 4 basic ingredients for ensuring faster rollout of 5G services across the country, mainly allocation of spectrum, reforms in the processing of RoW permission, co-operative federalism and rollout of services. Spectrum allocation and harmonization has been completed successfully. GatiSakti Sanchar Portal was launched by DoT in May, 2022 in line with Hon’ble PM’s vision of development of infrastructure services in an integrated manner. The IT systems of all States/UTs and major infrastructure central ministries such as Railway, Highways have been integrated with the portal to make India ready for 5G launch. Hon’ble Minister also commended State Governments & UTs for their work on RoW policy alignment. He also mentioned that 13 States/UTs have also implemented deemed approval clause in their RoW Policies ensuring speedy approvals. These measures have resulted in major reduction in average time for approval of RoW applications, from 435 days in 2019 to 16 days in July, 2022.
He further mentioned that in the amended Right of Way Rules, charges for RoW permissions have been made reasonable and a ceiling for RoW charges for installation of 5G small cells and optical fibre cable on street furniture has been fixed. These amendments will pave the way for deployment of 5G small cells on existing street infrastructure. With these series of reforms, the country is now ready for launch of 5G services by October, 2022.
The salient features of the amendments are as follows:
Expansion of telecom infrastructure:
Improving ease of doing business:
Rationalization of fees/charges:
Telecom infrastructure over private property:
These measures are expected to facilitate rapid expansion and upgradation of telecom networks and therefore improvement in the quality of services.
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