Regulatory, Environmental Policy, and Energy Related Issues, Challenges and Prospects in Indian Telecom Infrastructure

Abstract

The telecom services signify the socio-economic growth of a nation. It is one of the major support services needed for rapid development and transformation of various sectors of the economy of the country. Indian telecommunication sector has undergone a major process of revolution and progression through significant policy reforms, particularly beginning with the declaration of National Telecom Policy 1994 and was subsequently re-emphasized and carried forward under National Telecom Policy 1999. Driven by various policy initiatives, the Indian telecom sector has witnessed a complete revolutionary transformation in the last decade. It has achieved a phenomenal escalation during the last few years and is poised to take a big leap in the future also. The growth has resulted into some adverse effects like accumulation of green house gases (GHG), issues in spectrum management and paucity of energy. Increasing public demand for corporate social responsibility and an authentic desire to effect positive change in the environment are leading telecommunications service providers and their suppliers to diminish their carbon footprint. There are many emerging issues in the management of spectrum like reform of previous regulatory framework, streamlining SACFA (Standing advisory committee on frequency allocation) clearances, delicensing spectrum bands for broadband services, spectrum trading and lack of unique global unified standard. Many industries and institutions are carrying out the research for efficient telecommunication infrastructure. This paper focuses on the issues related to energy, environment, spectrum as well as remedies to overcome the challenges. Use of renewable energy resources, effective and transparent spectrum management and one unified standard with convergence of different technologies can be the future prospects for the betterment of service providers as well as subscribers.