State adopts policy to facilitate rollout of 5G

The state cabinet, in its meeting on Thursday, approved a telecom infrastructure policy which was in line with the Indian Telegraph Right of Way (Amendment) Rules, 2022. This is aimed at laying down a uniform, single-window policy for the grant of RoW permissions and streamlining fees that are charged for setting up telecom infrastructure

Mumbai: In order to ensure a speedy rollout of 5G telecom services, the state government has decided to streamline the grant of right of way (RoW) permissions for erecting telecom towers and laying optical fiber cable (OFC) networks.

State adopts policy to facilitate rollout of 5G

This will also give a push for 4G telecom service providers to widen their subscriber base.

This ease of doing business initiative will create an enabling eco-system for telecom and internet service providers to add infrastructure and deepen the reach of these services, said state officials.

The state cabinet, in its meeting on Thursday, approved a telecom infrastructure policy which was in line with the Indian Telegraph Right of Way (Amendment) Rules, 2022. This is aimed at laying down a uniform, single-window policy for the grant of RoW permissions and streamlining fees that are charged for setting up telecom infrastructure.

Under this policy, the state government will levy fees as per the policy laid down by the union government. Accordingly, an administrative fee of ₹1,000 per duct per km will be charged for laying OFCs and for erecting mobile towers on private buildings or the ground, it will be ₹10,000 per tower. Service providers will have to ensure 2 mbps broadband connectivity to government offices. The policy also provides for the use of street furniture for the creation of 5G infrastructure.

“Earlier, service providers had to apply to individual urban or rural local bodies for permissions. Now, the single-window portal will make the process of applications and permissions easier... these permissions have been centralised and the discretion in the hands of officials who granted these permissions has been removed,” he explained.

The official noted that at present, the state government had no consolidated data about pending applications at the local level. The new system would help them understand how many cases were pending approval. If these consents were not granted within the set timeframe, they will be deemed to be approved. The fees for various services have been streamlined with an upper limit being laid down, replacing the previous system where some local bodies levied arbitrary rates.

Every competent authority, that is the urban or rural local body, shall appoint a nodal officer for implementing the policy. Applications for laying fresh infrastructure shall be made through the union government’s ‘GatiShakti Sanchar Portal’ while that for regularising existing infrastructure shall be made on the state’s ‘Maha Sanchar Portal,’ which will be linked to it. The ‘Maha Sanchar Portal’ shall serve as a centralised database of telecom infrastructure.