‘Common duct policy’ soon

To reduce operational costs and frequent digging of roads

All the network cables (BSNL, Dishnet, Internet cables) are affected badly due to rain water line laying by TNCA at Victoria Hostel Road, Chepauk in Chennai. Photo: M. Karunakaran 30/09/2006

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.

“We are talking about a common duct for all. Any service provider who enters a city digs up the city… we wanted that at least for fibre and power, we can make a common duct and whichever entity wants to offer services can use that duct to pass their fibre,” Trai Chairman R.S. Sharma said.

He added that 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,” he said.

‘Proof of concept’

“Common infrastructure has a lot of advantages… We are doing a proof of concept… At the end of the exercise, we should be able to come to a conclusion on whether such a proposal is replicable in other larger and smaller cities. Based on experience in Jharkhand, we should be able to give our proposal to the government.”

He said that the concept of common shared infrastructure had dispelled the myth that each service provider must individually own the entire backbone.

“Because of the tower sharing policy that myth has been broken.”