A towering biz for telecom
December 24, 2007, Deccan Herald
As telecom revolution extends to rural India, telecom operators are realising that the infrastructure sharing may be the best way option. To meet national teledensity goals and reach out to rural markets, three companies have merged their infrastructure assets to form Indus Towers, a subsidiary company that aims to provide passive infrastructure services in the form of 70,000 telecom towers to all operators on a non-discriminatory basis. This follows Reliance Communications' de-merging of its tower assets into a separate subsidiary to push forward operator-neutral tower infrastructure. While Reliance was the first telecom operator to do so, others have realised the wisdom of infrastructure sharing, which will lower operating costs and create a more competitive environment for operators as well as provide consumers with increased network reach and quality.