New Delhi, April 21 -- The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), representing India's leading telecom service providers - Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea - has strongly opposed in what it termed as "illegal and anti-consumer model" adopted by Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation (MMRC) for provisioning telecom infrastructure on Metro Line 3 (Colaba-Bandra-Aarey corridor).

At the core of this issue is MMRC's decision to award telecom infrastructure deployment to a third-party IP-I vendor.

As per a statement from COAI, under the current telecom licensing framework, IP-I providers are prohibited from deploying active infrastructure.

"This move not only breaches the Telecommunication Act, 2023, but also sidelines licensed ...