The Indian government has asked all the states/union territories to follow the Right of Way (RoW) rules notified under the Telecommunications Act. This move from the government comes to ensure telcos have uniform costs in rolling out telecom infrastructure throughout the country. At present, the RoW rules are different for several states, and this means that telecom operators have to pay different costs for getting permission and setting up infrastructure in the country. This is detrimental to the government's initiative of Digital Bharat because it reduces the efficiency and rapidness with which the telcos can roll out connectivity infrastructure.
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From January 1, 2025, all the states have been asked by the Indian government to upgrade their RoW portals as the rules have to be implemented digitally, according to an ET report.
Neeraj Mittal, secretary of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) wrote in a letter to the states saying that they have to notify all the concerned authorities of the changes coming. The new RoW rules are geared to boost the rollout of telecom infrastructure across the nation. It will facilitate faster rollout of 5G networks, and be a game changer for the industry.
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The simplified process for obtaining the permissions, and that too digitally across India will solve a very major pain for the telcos. Since everything will be digital, transparency and efficiency will also be maintained at the highest level. Many state governments have an inefficient and offline mode process for obtaining permissions. But that is going to change now, and for the better.
Telcos have previously requested the government that uniform RoW policies should be implemented across India, and that is what is happening now.
