Not just consolidation: Telcom must share resources in order to survive

Telecom sector needs to pool active resources

Sunil Mittal has made a case for shared active infrastructure, including spectrum, to restore the telecom sector’s profitability and credibility. Spectrum could be jointly owned by what Mr Mittal calls a network operating company from which all service operators can take it on lease. This will transform the operators into purely marketing companies and strengthen their balance sheets. This makes sense, especially in India where profits are under an unprecedented squeeze on account of the high price of spectrum and the tariff war assault by Reliance Jio. Investors have started to stay away from telecom stocks; overseas interest in the