@ksh@T 20 Report post Posted April 22, 2008 MUMBAI: Public sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) is in talks with Tata Teleservices (TTSL), Reliance Communications and Aircel for sharing passive infrastructure as it attempts to expand coverage in the shortest possible time. “Discussions are at a preliminary stage. We are talking to operators who have not yet formed an alliance for tower sharing,” a BSNL official told ET. Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea have already joined hands to form Indus Towers, which has 70,000 towers across India and is the world’s largest tower firm. Aircel’s GSM expansion to 14 circles gives BSNL an opportunity to have the company as a tenant on its telecom towers while the PSU firm can be a tenant on the towers of TTSL and RCom and vice versa. However, he ruled out the formation of a tower company on the lines of Indus Towers, saying it will not be feasible. Many of BSNL’s towers, however, can’t be shared and have been designed for only one operator. The capex required for a GBT is higher than that for a roof-based tower. However, a GBT can accommodate higher number of tenants 3 to 5 while an RTT can accommodate only 2 at most. This will be the first time that BSNL will share its infrastructure with private operators. BSNL’s policy, till now, has been to stay aloof from all alliances in the telecom space. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Honest 836 Report post Posted July 7, 2008 BSNL to announce infrastructure sharing policy in a month 7 Jul, 2008, 1547 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: Country's largest telephone company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd will come out with its new infrastructure sharing policy, which will help the operator garner more revenues, in a month's time, sources said. The company is in the final stages of drawing the guidelines on the policy and will announce it in a month, a highly-placed source in the company said. The policy would spell out the number of towers to be shared, the business model, tower-tenant ratio and the time-frame for the towers would be shared, the source added. The tower business would help the PSU recover from its falling revenues as it is at an advantageous position of having the maximum reach in the country. The company has more number of towers in 'B' category circles and villages where private operators have small footprint. It is also argued that other operators would rather use BSNL's towers than erecting new towers to cut cost. The state-run telecom firm has 50,000 mobile towers, the maximum in the country. The company is also planning to carve out a new entity for its tower business in a few months. BSNL would look after the maintenance of the towers in the new entity while rest of the things will be outsourced to a third party, said the source. The PSU is also learnt to be in talks with some major players which are purely into the tower business for this purpose, he added. Except, BSNL, all other major operators like Bharti, Vodafone, Idea and Reliance have already entered into the business of tower sharing. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
