UL amendment to give operators more freedom over equipment installation

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has amended the terms of the Unified Licence Agreement (UL) to allow providers to locate switches and other network elements anywhere in India, having previously restricted such deployments to the operator’s licensed service areas. The move will allow providers to optimise their equipment deployment to meet capacity requirements, and slightly improve their CAPEX management. The Economic Times quotes Rajan Matthews, the director general of industry group the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) as saying: ‘This amendment is indeed helpful for operators as it allows them to optimise location of switching and network infrastructure by allowing for consolidation across [service areas] whereas previously it was restricted to each [circle] where the operator had a licence.’ Mr Matthews also speculated that the amendment might indicate a move towards India introducing a single licence, rather than dividing the country into 22 service areas.