India's government is reportedly considering making the installation of telecom infrastructure mandatory for future real estate developments.
The Department of Telecom is formulating a policy whereby it would be the property developer's responsibility to arrange the provision of infrastructure including broadband connectivity, the Economic Timesreported, citing an internal department memo.
This policy would reportedly apply to both commercial and residential developments such as high-rise buildings. It is aimed at helping India fulfil its goal of developing 100 “smart cities” across India.
But India's real-estate industry is pushing for operators to share the costs and responsibility of deploying telecom infrastructure in the developments.
According to the report, the new guidelines will also mandate the deployment of common telecom infrastructure including ducts along highways and in municipal areas.
It will also encompass tweaks to the process for securing government permissions for installing infrastructure in more urban areas, in a bid to speed up the process for rolling out high-speed broadband networks.