Page 151 - SAMENA Trends - February 2020

REGULATORY & POLICY UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

Nirmala Sitharaman, on the other hand said she would simplifying and streamlining the process. However,
hear the telecom ministry’s stance on the matter before the rules have not been widely adopted at a state
making a statement. (February 18, 2020) The Economic Times level according to TAIPA. Highlighting the problem,
TAIPA pointed out that the Karnataka government has
Local governments in fewer than half of India’s 36 introduced its own telecom infrastructure policy that
states and Union Territories have aligned with the is completely misaligned with the DoT’s RoW policy,
Right of Way (RoW) rules issued by the Department featuring fees up to ten times higher than those set out
of Telecommunications (DoT) in 2016, the Economic by the telecom ministry and excluding any stipulations
Times writes, citing industry group the Tower and regarding the timeframe for an application to be
Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA). According processed. In a more positive development, meanwhile,
to the group just 16 states have aligned their policies the DoT has amended the terms of unified access
with the RoW rules, potentially jeopardizing the rollout service licenses to allow for the deferment of spectrum
of critical tower and fiber infrastructure, with TAIPA payments due in the in financial years ending March
noting that around 100,000 more towers are needed 2021 and March 2022. The government had greenlit
to ‘provide quality services and cater for an active the two-year moratorium on spectrum payments in
subscriber base of more than a billion consumers’. November last year to ease the current financial burden
The RoW rules provide a standardized framework for on telcos and allow providers to recover from a bruising
licensees to apply for permission from local authorities three-year price war.
for the installation of infrastructure, with a view to (February 10, 2020) commsupdate.com

The Italian government is urging Telecom Italia (TIM) (CDP), which also has a stake in TIM. US investment
and the owners of wholesale network operator Open firm KKR has been named as a potential funding
Fiber to reach an agreement on the combination of their partner for TIM. (February 27, 2020) commsupdate.com
respective fixed broadband infrastructure. The two
Italy telcos have been discussing a tie-up since last year The Communications Regulatory Authority (Autorita per
le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni, Agcom) has opened
with a view to creating a single national fibre network,
something the government sees as a strategic national a procedure to evaluate coverage obligations for the
asset, but negotiations appear to have stalled. Italy’s 5G network sharing venture involving Wind Tre and
Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri is cited by Reuters Fastweb. Under its 3.7GHz concession won at auction
as saying: ‘The government encourages constructive in October 2018, Wind Tre must offer coverage of at
discussions among parties to set conditions to least 5% of the population of each Italian region within
integrate existing assets’. TIM is looking for investment 48 months from the award of the license. The regulator
partners to provide funding to help it acquire a 50% is now assessing whether these coverage obligations
stake in Open Fiber from utility group Enel, though should be altered in light of the infrastructure sharing
reports suggest that Enel’s CEO Francesco Starace deal signed by the two operators in June last year.
is keen to hang onto the unit. The remainder of Open Mondo Mobile Web says Agcom’s investigation will
Fiber is owned by state lender Cassa Depositi e Prestiti take up to 120 days. (February 21, 2020) commsupdate.com

The Government of Kazakhstan, the International technology. “The joint UNICEF-ITU global initiative GIGA
Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the United Nations aims to bridge the digital divide between urban and rural
Children’s Fund (UNICEF) agreed to collaborate on GIGA, education. It is important to note that providing remote
a UNICEF-ITU global initiative to connect every school villages with broadband Internet access is one of the
Kazakhstan to the Internet and every young person in Kazakhstan most central areas of the work of our ministry,” said
to information, opportunity and choice. Launched in
Askar Zhumagaliyev, Minister of Digital Development,
2019, GIGA sets the goal of providing connectivity to Innovation and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of
every school in the world. Some 3.7 billion people in Kazakhstan. “Telecom operators have laid thousands
the world do not have access to the Internet, of whom of kilometers of fiber-optic communication lines to
360 million are young people. A lack of access to the villages. Within the framework of this project alone,
Internet means children and young people are excluded we provided access to high-speed Internet for 446
from the wealth of information available online, limiting rural schools, and by the end of this year there will be
their resources to learn and to grow, and to fulfill their 1,342 such schools. Therefore, supporting GIGA is a
potential. Closing the digital divide requires global logical step for us to further expand the access of rural
cooperation, leadership, and innovation in finance and schoolchildren of Kazakhstan to online educational

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