{"id":15246,"date":"2024-02-23T12:46:10","date_gmt":"2024-02-23T12:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/?p=15246"},"modified":"2025-10-17T13:07:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T12:07:59","slug":"passive-infrastructure-providers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/mobile-policy-handbook\/business-environment\/passive-infrastructure-providers\/","title":{"rendered":"Passive infrastructure providers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mph_background mph_column left\"><h3>Background<\/h3>\n<p>Many mobile operators share infrastructure on commercial terms to reduce costs, avoid unnecessary duplication and expand coverage cost-effectively in rural areas. The most commonly shared infrastructure is passive infrastructure, which may include land, rights of way, ducts, trenches, towers, masts, dark fibre and power supplies, all of which support the active network components required for signal transmission and reception.<\/p>\n<p>Infrastructure-sharing is arranged through bilateral agreements between mobile operators to share specific towers, through strategic sharing alliances, through the formation of joint infrastructure companies between mobile operators or via independent companies providing towers and other passive infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Increasingly, independent tower companies provide tower-sharing facilities to mobile operators. Several countries have established regulatory frameworks based on registration that encourage passive infrastructure-sharing arrangements and provide regulatory clarity for mobile operators and independent passive infrastructure providers. While regulatory authorities in almost all countries support passive infrastructure-sharing arrangements, there is a lack of regulatory clarity in some countries and particularly so in relation to independent tower companies.<\/p>\n<h3>Debate<\/h3>\n<p><em>What benefits do independent tower <\/em><em>companies offer to mobile operators?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>Should passive infrastructure sharing ever <\/em><em>be mandated by a regulatory authority?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>What<\/em> <em>steps<\/em> <em>should<\/em> <em>regulators<\/em> <em>take<\/em> <em>to <\/em><em>provide clarity for tower companies and mobile operators?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\n<\/div><br \/>\n<div class=\"mph_background mph_column right\"><\/p>\n<h3>Industry position<\/h3>\n<p>Licensed mobile operators should be able to share passive infrastructure with other licensed mobile operators and outsource passive infrastructure supply to passive infrastructure providers without seeking regulatory approval. Sharing passive infrastructure on commercial terms enables operators to reduce capital and operating expenditure without affecting investment incentives or their ability to differentiate and innovate.<\/p>\n<p>Infrastructure-sharing provides a basis for the mobile industry to expand coverage cost-effectively and rapidly while retaining competitive incentives. Regulation of passive infrastructure- sharing should be permissive but not mandate such arrangements.<\/p>\n<p>In markets with licensing frameworks that do not already provide for the operation of independent tower companies, regulatory authorities (or the responsible government department) should either permit independent passive infrastructure companies to operate without sector-specific authorisation or establish a registration scheme for such companies. The scheme should be a simple authorisation that provides for oversight of planning-related matters while making a clear distinction with the licensing framework that applies to electronic communications network and service providers.<\/p>\n<p>Registered providers should be permitted to construct and acquire passive infrastructure that is open to sharing with mobile operators, provide (for example, sell or lease) passive infrastructure elements to licensed operators and supply ancillary services and facilities essential to the provision of passive infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Mobile operators should be permitted to use infrastructure from passive infrastructure companies through commercial agreements without explicit regulatory approval. Infrastructure- sharing agreements should be governed by commercial law and, as such, be subject to assessment under general competition law.<\/p>\n<p>Public authorities should provide licensed mobile operators and passive infrastructure providers with access to public property and rights of way on reasonable terms and conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Governments seeking to support national infrastructure development should ensure swift approval for the construction of passive infrastructure, and environmental restrictions should reflect globally accepted standards.<\/p>\n<p>Taxation and fees imposed on independent tower or passive infrastructure companies should not act as a barrier to the development of this industry, which makes more efficient, lower-cost forms of infrastructure supply possible.<\/p>\n<h3>Resources<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/technologies\/networks\/gsma_resources\/infrastructure-sharing-an-overview\/\">Infrastructure Sharing: An Overview, GSMA, June 2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n<\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1149],"tags":[],"featured_image_url":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/mobile-policy-handbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15246"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/mobile-policy-handbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/mobile-policy-handbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/mobile-policy-handbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/mobile-policy-handbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15246"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/mobile-policy-handbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22261,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/mobile-policy-handbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15246\/revisions\/22261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/mobile-policy-handbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/mobile-policy-handbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gsma.com\/solutions-and-impact\/connectivity-for-good\/public-policy\/mobile-policy-handbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}