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- Promotion rules: they want to entrust the creation of infrastructure for the Internet to road builders
Promotion rules: they want to entrust the creation of infrastructure for the Internet to road builders
When laying railways, highways, pipelines and power transmission lines, it is planned to provide places for laying communication cables. With such a request, telecom companies appealed to the Ministry of Finance, proposing to oblige builders to lay the appropriate channels. According to market participants and experts, this will improve Internet coverage along the highways and provide connectivity in populated areas where it is not available. Operators often do not have their own infrastructure, and access to land for laying lines remains difficult. A pre-prepared database will reduce the costs of operators and make their services more accessible to consumers in the future, analysts say.
Which objects do signalers want to access?
Builders of railways and highways, power transmission lines and pipelines will have to lay infrastructure to accommodate communication lines along them. The telecom company sent such a proposal to the Ministry of Finance as part of the preparation of a new version of the communications industry development strategy until 2035. Izvestia has reviewed the document.
The authors of the initiative propose to prepare regulations aimed at simplifying the access of telecom companies to linear infrastructure facilities in related sectors of the economy. In their opinion, the placement along roads, power lines and other places for laying lines, as well as the preparation of a minimal base — for example, cable sewerage or overhead cable fasteners — will increase the availability of communication services to the public and reduce the time and cost of network deployment.
Simplification of access to such facilities (poles, power transmission lines, poles) is also provided for in the current version of the industry development strategy, the authors of the proposal note. However, according to them, the measures provided for in it have not been implemented so far.
The issue of laying communications along power transmission lines, roads and pipelines is acute when connecting large and small settlements, as well as enterprises, said Denis Kuskov, CEO of TelecomDaily. In practice, there may be a situation when an operator plans to lay a cable to a village, but there is a road or pipeline on the route of its route. In such cases, it is often easier for them not to look for workarounds, but to use an existing land acquisition, he believes.
— If places are allocated for communication facilities at other linear structures and minimal infrastructure is prepared there, this will reduce the cost of their creation. Consequently, tariffs will also become lower: additional costs will not be passed on to end users. In addition, the quality of cellular communications will also improve: situations will be eliminated when, for example, there is no place for a cell tower in the land allocation, and the owners of adjacent plots simply do not give the go—ahead for its placement," the expert noted.
Operators are interested in liberalizing access not only to such large-scale linear facilities as highways or pipelines, but also to apartment buildings where their subscribers live, he noted. For example, earlier telecom companies suggested that the Ministry of Finance, when designing and building new residential areas, oblige developers to provide infrastructure for cellular equipment in them. To ensure high-quality communication on the upper floors and avoid interference in dense buildings, operators recommended integrating antenna mast structures of different heights into the residential complex at the design stage, placing internal antenna systems in new buildings, as well as base stations on special structures on the roofs of houses.
Indeed, in terms of implementing the communications industry development strategy until 2035, there is already a provision to simplify operators' access to linear facilities in related sectors of the economy, the Ministry of Finance told Izvestia. The ministry added that much has already been done to implement this provision. Thus, the possibility of indirect technological connection of communication facilities to the highway infrastructure, as well as the placement of lines and structures directly in the right-of-way lanes, and much more has been provided.
In addition, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Finance have prepared a draft agreement on the exchange of information on plans for the development of road infrastructure and communication networks along the highways — it is undergoing interdepartmental coordination. The ministry also reported that the operators have already been informed of the upcoming plans for the construction, expansion and reconstruction of highways, indicating the possibilities for the placement of facilities.
Izvestia sent inquiries to the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Transport.
How access to someone else's infrastructure will help operators keep tariffs down
The introduction of a requirement for builders will help not only reduce the cost of laying fiber-optic communication lines (FLS), but also shorten the time for their implementation — this will make services more accessible and cheaper, Rostelecom believes.
— Now there are difficulties in agreeing on the laying of overhead lines along various communications: long approvals, outdated standards. For example, laying along pipelines is complicated by the rules of their operation and the lack of desire, and sometimes the legal ability of owners to allow third-party organizations into their right-of-way. The most difficult situation is with highways — despite the positive changes in legislation, road workers are rarely allowed into their right—of-way lanes, Rostelecom told Izvestia.
Currently, the key problems in laying communication lines along the routes are the lack of ready infrastructure, limited access to occupied land and lengthy approvals, the press service of Er-Telecom Holding said. This increases the time and cost of the project, they added. Laying the base at the stage of construction of roads, power lines and pipelines will reduce costs and accelerate the deployment of networks. This will expand coverage, including in remote areas, and improve the quality and accessibility of communication services for users, according to the company.
Over the past 30 years, operators have been trying to gain access to the spatial infrastructure of power engineers, gas workers, road builders, and the like for the construction of power lines. Power transmission lines, pipelines, highways or railway tracks already have land drainage, so laying a cable along them is fast and cheap, said Leonid Konik, a partner at ComNews Research. Otherwise, operators are forced to negotiate with the owners of hundreds of land plots.
— At the same time, the owners of power lines, pipelines, roads and railways are not eager to allow operators to access their infrastructure. They say that their task is to transfer electricity, transport hydrocarbons or transport. At the same time, such corporations often pull optics on their own — sometimes using it for internal needs, and sometimes selling the surplus to the market, he says.
Even when accessing power lines or pipelines, the problems do not disappear. In case of accidents, infrastructure owners usually cordon off the damaged areas and restrict access to outsiders, the expert noted. As a result, the operator often does not have the opportunity to start restoration quickly — work can be delayed for a long time, up to several weeks. In his opinion, it is impossible to solve this problem without the participation of the state.
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