As a critical member of the wireless telecom ecosystem, the key players for Telecom Infrastructure providers have come together to form a representative industry body, Towers and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA). The telecom infrastructure providers now provide an Integrated Neutral Host Platform that is used by diverse and often competing operators resulting in the rapid deployment of
networks supporting over 1000 million mobile subscribers. The new and upcoming technologies such as 3G and BWA services will be highly successful since the easy availability and accessibility of shared towers, a key input for the growth of this sector. All leading independent telecom infrastructure providers like Bharti Infratel, Indus Towers, Viom Networks (Now merged with ATC), ATC India Tower Corp., GTL Infrastructures, India Telecom Infra and Tower Vision are the founding members of the Society which visualizes itself to be the official voice for the Telecom Infrastructure industry. The Association intends to interact, discuss and deliberate with the Ministries, Policy Makers, Regulators, Financial institutions and Technical bodies for collection and dissemination of knowledge and information for promotion of healthy growth in telecom services. The role and objectives of this society will be primarily to be one-voice of the industry and emphasize the need to bring ‘Telecom Infrastructure Services’ under key utilities segment, to promote sharing of valuable resources, to improve competitiveness, to develop a unified industry voice on issues affecting tower er****on, maintenance and service work. The key action points of this Association are :
To ensure that the industry is given ‘Key Infrastructure’ status
To promote formulation of National Telecom Infrastructure Policy mandating the sharing of Towers
To ensure ‘No Charges’ being put on IP-1s in terms of License Fee, etc for providing cost-optimized services;
To mandate Authorities in-charge of Highways, Ports, Rails etc to share Right of Way
To formulate uniform policy across India with regard to tower setup, maintenance and service work
To organize a single-window clearance of all Municipal and Statutory approvals
To get financial support out of USO Fund for every tower built / operating in Rural India
To organize incentives for deploying Alternate Energy Technologies;
To get further support from the Government by Tax Holidays & other Concessions, etc
TAIPA also plans to collaborate with other industry association such as CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM, COAI, AUSPI, ISPAI, etc with the objective of presenting an industry consensus view to the Government on crucial issues relating to the growth and development of Telecom industry. Akhil Gupta, Managing Director – Bharti Infratel has been nominated as the Chairman of the Society for the first year. The position will be filled by rotation policy amongst the founding members. The Chairman is ably supported by Vice Chairman Mr. Umang Das – Chief Mentor Viom Networks Ltd and Director General –TAIPA Mr. Tilak Raj Dua. Tilak Raj is the Director General of this Association and the Executive Council is the represented by all the member organizations. The related organizations to the telecom infrastructure industry can also become Associate Members of this Association.
