savramesh 37 Report post Posted March 23, 2009 State-run telecom operator BSNL has decided to lease out its passive infrastructure, that includes towers mainly to other telecom companies in semi- urban areas in the country. A senior official of the PSU on Monday said that "since we have more towers in tier-II and -III cities, we have decided to lease out those towers with unutilised capacity to the operators." The agreement would be on bilateral basis, he said. Aimed at generating more revenue and fully utilising the huge tower base, BSNL plans to cash in on its pan-India presence. It operates all over India, except Delhi and Mumbai. The PSU plans to lease out its Ground Based Towers in circles such as Andaman and Nicobar, Andhra Pradesh Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Chhatisgarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, North East, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh (East and West), Uttranchal and West Bengal. BSNL has over 60,000 towers and the most of them are in semi-urban areas where private operators have small footprint. According to the industry analysts, erecting one cell site costs about Rs 30 lakh, which takes the most of the cost and time for any operator. (ST-23/03) Source DD News Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
