Steps to Promote Infrastructure Sharing and Collocation

Steps to Promote Infrastructure Sharing and Collocation

Develop Regulatory Policy

Ø      Publish a regulatory policy encouraging infrastructure sharing and collocation.

Ø      Encourage local authorities, such as municipal governments, to support and facilitate infrastructure sharing.

Ø      Encourage reciprocity of infrastructure sharing (i.e. new entrants should be required to size and build their facilities to permit sharing with incumbents and other operators).

Ø      Require incumbent operator to publish a standard offer and price list for access to key infrastructure components: poles, ducts, conduits, tower space, etc.

Ø      Incumbents should be required to provide information on the location of infrastructure and capacity available for sharing (e.g., excess capacity in ducts, towers, etc.).

Ø      A joint committee of operators should be established to plan infrastructure capacity, co-ordinate permits from local authorities, and improve the mutual efficiency of the infrastructure provisioning process.

Ø      Operators should be able to reserve capacity in advance on reasonable terms.

Price of Shared Infrastructure and Collocation

Regulators should encourage development of clear pricing guidelines (the following are illustrative only).

Ø      Normally, incumbents and other operators should be able to recover at least their direct incremental costs of sharing, plus reasonable overheads.

Ø      Additional price components may be subject to negotiation and regulatory dispute resolution.

Ø      Prices for collocation and infrastructure sharing should generally be unbundled so that the operator requesting access is only required to pay for the services it uses.

Ø      Cost of new infrastructure should be shared among two or more operators in proportion to their use of the infrastructure (e.g., number of antennae located on a microwave tower).

Ø      Costs of increased capacity and re-location of infrastructure should be shared among those that benefit from such works.  Where an incumbent operator receives no benefit from works required to accommodate a new entrant, it should normally not pay, unless and until it benefits from such works.  An alternative approach is to allocate the costs among sharing operators based on use, with a surcharge for the operator that requires the work.

Ø      Future sharers of infrastructure should reimburse early entrants for expenditures that benefit them.

Regulatory Safeguards

Ø      Shared infrastructures should be made available to all operators on a non-discriminatory basis.  This includes the owner of the infrastructure.  Capacity should normally be provided on a first come, first served basis.  The regulator should approve rationing schemes for scarce capacity.

Ø      New entrants or other operators that do not use ordered infrastructure capacity within a set time period should be required to return it.  A penalty for excessive orders may also be appropriate.

Ø      Operators that provide shared infrastructure should record and have available for regulatory review provisioning times for their own operators and competitors.

Ø      Physical separation of infrastructure (e.g., by walls or fences) may be warranted where necessary to prevent sabotage, but operators should be encouraged to share in the most efficient manner.

Source: Telecommunications Regulation Handbook, ed. Hank Intven (Washington, D.C.: The World Bank/infoDev, 2000) at 3-50 – 3-51.