Telecom operators with inadequate infrastructure facilities will be able to share top market players' platforms under a new infrastructure sharing guideline.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) yesterday finalised the guideline, which says operators who own telecom platforms will share their respective infrastructure capacity with other operators on a non-discriminatory basis.

The guideline aims to optimise utilisation of telecommunication resources to ensure availability of a wide range of high quality, efficient, cost-effective and competitive tele-communication services throughout Bangladesh.

The telecom operators spend millions of dollars a year to develop individual infrastructure.

"As per the guideline, operators shall enter into agreements to share their respective infrastructure with other operators. If there is a dispute over sharing. BTRC will intervene to resolve the dispute," said Md Rakibul Hassan, deputy director (system and services) of BTRC.

Infrastructure sharing to minimise costs and environmental hazards is a must in a market with too many operators, industry insiders said.

Six mobile and 12 landline operators are providing telecom services for about 45 million customers. Some of the new market players, including Warid, TeleTalk and some private landline operators lack in adequate infrastructure facility-

However, the top operators have been reluctant to share their infrastructure facilities with the small players.

UAE-based Warid has recently signed an infrastructure sharing agreement with country's oldest operator Citycell. Under the deal, both companies are now sharing their base transceiver stations (BTS) and other infrastructure.

The guideline will solve the problems, Hassan said. All operators must post information regarding available infrastructure for sharing on the websites under the guideline.

Under the guideline, infrastructure seekers can share the big operators' electronic infrastructure and other facilities, which would include sharing base transceiver station, spectrum, antenna, feeder cable, radio access network (RAN), microwave radio equipment,

billing platform, switching centres, router, base station controller (BSC) and optical fiber.

The guideline also includes sites, buildings, shelters, towers, power supply and battery backup, grounding, air conditioning, security arrangement, poles, ducts, trenches in the list of things to be shared.

Top three operators have already rolled out their network over and across the country. Grameenphone has 11,000 BTSs, followed by Banglalink's 5,000 and Aktel's 3,000. Grameen and Banglalink have also developed a fiber optic network.

The new guideline will benefit state-run mobile operator TeleTalk. The company has been struggling for better network facility since its inception in 2005.

"We may go for infrastructure sharing," said a high official of TeleTalk. "The new guideline may give TeleTalk some relief from the problems caused by the delay in network expansion, mainly due to financial crisis," the official said.