Indus Towers to add 2,000 telecom towers across India

Maharashtra and Goa circle to get 400 towers

Indus Towers, India’s largest telecom tower company plans to add 2,000 towers nationwide this fiscal. Of this about 400 will be added in Maharashtra and Goa with a capex of Rs 500 crore.

Indus has increased the number of its telecom towers in Maharashtra and Goa Circle to 11,000 from just about 4,000 in 2008 covering over 380 towns and 43,500 villages.

“Indus plans to add around 2,000 more towers nationally of which around 20 per cent are expected to be in the Maharashtra and Goa Circle. We are increasing our tower network depending upon the broadband penetration in the region. Maharashtra & Goa, with its huge subscriber base, is a very important market for Indus and it has been our endeavor to ensure our subscribers in the state receive continued seamless network support from us,” said B L Venkateshwar, CEO of Indus Towers (Maharashtra and Goa Circle).

Indus has highest number of towers in Maharashtra after Andhra Pradesh. In total, it has 1,13,000 towers in the country with a  market share of 41 per cent and total turnover of Rs 14,000 crore. Indus has a presence in the 15 major telecom circles of India, and has achieved over 230,000 tenancies.

Indus also plans to create a greener and power efficient India through its Green Sites initiative. The initiative which has already seen over 20,000 green sites being created last year across 15 circles has enabled Indus to substantially reduce its energy and power costs. With measures such as sharing sites between multiple operators Indus has been able to reduce its energy costs by 20 per cent to 30 per cent per site.

Indus has been promoted under a joint venture between entities of Bharti Group, Vodafone India and Aditya Birla Telecom. Set up in 2007, the company renders passive infrastructure services to telecom service providers in the country.

There are over 4 lakh mobile towers in India  and the size of this business is of Rs 35,000 crore. Each tower costs around Rs 10 lakh - 30 lakh depending upon the height and location.