Earlier, the companies had also opposed a third-party agreement between the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) and ACES for IBS deployment
| Photo Credit:
Andrey Suslov
India’s three telecom operators — Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Vodafone Idea (Vi) — have demanded the right to deploy a common In-Building Solution (IBS) across four international airports, stating that only licensed telecom service providers have the right to provide such services in the country.
In various joint letters addressed to airport authorities of Navi Mumbai, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Bengaluru (whose existing IBS licenses will expire on May 31), the telcos noted that “unlicensed entities holding IP-I (Infrastructure Provider-1) registrations from the Department of Telecommunication” had approached the airport officials to deploy the IBS.
“We wish to clarify that under current regulations, such third-party vendors are not permitted to deploy active telecom infrastructure. Only TSPs holding valid Universal Access Service Licenses (UASL) and spectrum rights are legally authorised to install and operate Active IBS networks,” said the telcos in the letter, referring to provisions of the Telecommunication Act, 2023 and the Telecommunication Right of Way (RoW) Rules.
Instead of third parties, the companies asked that they deploy the IBS in these four airports without involving any third-party entities.
“Furthermore, granting exclusive rights to third parties for managing both active and passive IBS Infrastructure risks creates a monopolistic setup and establishing unnecessary bottlenecks,” said telcos warning of arbitrarily high fees.
Earlier, the companies had also opposed a third-party agreement between the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (MMRCL) and ACES for IBS deployment at the Mumbai metro stations, stating that the rates offered by the MMRCL were “unviable.”
Published on May 5, 2025