BSNL plans to lease infra to pvt players: govt

State-run telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) plans to lease out spare capacity of its about 60,000-strong network of towers to private players to unlock the value of infrastructure, Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora today said.

"BSNL has about 60,000 towers across the country. BSNL management has decided to lease out spare capacity of its towers to other private players on commercial terms and conditions to generate incremental revenue," Deora said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha today.

BSNL has, so far, shared 1,072 towers with the private players, he added.

Loss-making BSNL would to able to ease some of its financial pangs by unlocking the value of its idle tower assets with tower sharing.

Since BSNL has the infrastructure rolled out in the remotest parts of the country, private telcos would also benefit from such partnerships, as they can save on cost of setting up infrastructure and instead leasing out the assets from BSNL instead.

In response to another query, Deora said about 1.69 lakh villages are covered through BSNL's wireline broadband services.

"There are 5,93,601 inhabited villages in the country (as per 2001 census), out of which 1,69,201 villages have been covered through BSNL wireline broadband services as on October 30, 2011," he added.