The 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.

About the policy

• The common duct policy for which Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is carrying out pilots in Deoghar in Jharkhand.
• This 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.
• By May end, would put the entire program under close observation for six months.
• Based on the learning from the pilot success would recommend the government a similar initiative to replicate in tier-II and tier-III cities.

Advantage of policy

• Policy will allow the telecom service providers to share infrastructure.
• Could reduce telcos operational cost and mitigate RoW (right of way) challenges.
• The initiative, according to the regulator, will allow infrastructure providers to deploy a common terminal or box for optic fibre and digital TV cable with an objective to mitigate RoW issues.
• This will avoid great inconvenience to the people of the city as Telecom and TV companieshave to dig up the road every time a fibre is laid.

Source : The Hindu

GS III : Infrastructure: Energy, Ports, Roads, Airports, Railways etc