MUMBAI: TRAI is helping out with a pilot project at Baijnath Dham (Deoghar, Jharkhand) where infrastructure providers have been invited to lay ducts based on demand of telecom, Internet and broadcast distribution service providers.

TRAI is experimenting the investor-led initiative of facilitating the project in Jharkhand where ducts would be laid as per the next 20-year requirement and need of Internet, telecom and broadcast distribution service-providers.

A TRAI official told moneycontrol that no digging would be permitted once the ducts were laid and the service-provider uses them. Companies might simply push their fibre into and via the ducts as per their requirements.

The official said it would assist in cutting down operational expenses as the 'right of way’ fees that was paid to administrative and municipal authorities while digging would also come down.

The expansion of mobiles and data usage on mobiles notwithstanding, the idea of further spreading fixed broadband through fibre could not be secondary. If the idea was triumphed, on-demand services would be available and that would become a model for media cable companies, telecom and Internet service-providers to follow in rest of India.

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