The Centre is likely to soon come out with a new policy under which a common duct will be laid across a city and service providers such as telcos and digital TV players can lease these ducts to pass their fibre through it to offer services to consumers.
The ‘common duct policy,’ for which Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is carrying out pilots in Deoghar in Jharkhand, could reduce operational cost of firms, remove right of way challenges, while eliminating the need for frequent digging up of roads.
This will also result in additional revenue for the municipalities and remove issues related to right of way.
A common duct will be created for about 20 years. Once the duct is made, no service provider will be allowed to dig the road.
Common infrastructure has a lot of advantages for the concept of common shared infrastructure had dispelled the myth that each service provider must individually own the entire backbone.
