Daily Times

KARACHI: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has decided to establish an independent corporate body to deal with the telecom industry’s Right of Way (RoW) issues regarding the roll out of network, infrastructure sharing, and increased cost.

A city or town may grant, issue, or deny permits for the use of the RoW by a service provider installing, maintaining, repairing, or removing facilities for telecommunications services or cable television services.

In this regard, the PTA has invited a Request for Proposal (RFP) from independent consulting firms to provide professional services to develop a legislative framework for granting RoW to telecommunication infrastructures; devise a schedule of charges for right of way for public, private, cantonments and other jurisdictions; develop outside plant code; to identify standards for in-building cabling; prepare guidelines for using utility infrastructure; evaluate the feasibility of using alternative power sources and keeping in view the current market state and the applicable legal and regulatory framework.

“The consultants shall study the best international practices and prepare the legal framework on RoW. This may include suggesting an independent corporate body to deal with RoW issues in Pakistan, an Authority or a Commission fully empowered and responsible for RoW in accordance with the laws, rules, and regulations in Pakistan”, PTA stated in its RFP document.

The corporate body shall validate the conditions that are deemed necessary to permit public telecommunications network operators to construct, develop and maintain their networks in public and private properties. This corporate organization will be the interfacing body between the telecommunications industry and the relevant stakeholders and will be the focal point to receive and route the various consultation and approval forms between all telecommunications infrastructure Providers and all other utilities infrastructure providers.

The consultant shall recommend the design in consultation with the relevant ministries, provincial governments, Council of Common Interest and civic or other authorities, a nationally agreed process for granting rights of way at prices that lead to investment by telecommunications operators.

The firm shall provide recommendations to implement cost savings in the telecommunications industry and to mitigate the delays incurred in procuring rights of way for new infrastructure and reducing environmental impact. Sharing passive and active infrastructure will be considered before granting a new right of way or space to build towers or for other infrastructure.

The consultant firm shall design the processes for deployment of infrastructure elements capable of delivering various services including, but not limited to, towers, In Building Solution (IBS), Distributed Antenna System (DAS) and broadband network – access and backbone and the long-distance network; and the availability of electrical power is of critical importance to the telecommunications sector.