22.4.14

Reliance Jio inks another Towers deal

Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL), the telecom arm of Reliance Industries, has inked yet another tower sharing deal, this time with American Tower Corporation (ATC), for using its 11,000 towers in India, ahead of its pan-India 4G rollout, expected by September. ATC has a global portfolio of 67,000 towers across 13 countries.
In addition to the latest one, the tower sharing deal signed by RJIL includes a deal with Reliance Infratel for 45,000 towers, Bharti Infratel for 82,000 towers and Viom Networks for 42,000 towers.
As a result, RJIL’s total available 4G tower footprint has increased to 169,000 towers.
The announcement comes just two days after RIL’s fourth quarter earnings in which it announced a Rs 33,000 crore investment towards its 4G business.
While financial details of the deal were not disclosed, it is expected to be similar to the deals signed with Bharti Infratel and Viom Networks. ATC’s towers will be used by RJIL in pockets where other tower companies whom RJIL has earlier signed deals with, are not present.
A deal with Indus Towers is also on the cards. In addition, the next infrastructure deal is likely to be signed with Vodafone within the next two months.
At the time of winning 2G spectrum in the recent auctions in February, Vodafone’s management mentioned that it would consider 4G services in the future.
Reliance Jio has also signed fibre and infrastructure sharing deals with Reliance Communications and Bharti Infratel. Additionally, the company has a pan-India unified BWA license for 2300 MHz spectrum in 22 circles as well as 1800 MHz spectrum in 14 key circles in India – both of which it intends using for its imminent 4G rollout.

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