Reliance Jio, Indus Towers join hands for tower sharing

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm has inked an agreement with telecom tower infrastructure provider Indus Towers to share the latter's 113,490 towers.

According to the agreement, Reliance Jio would utilize the telecom tower infrastructure services being provided by Indus Towers to launch its services across the country. As per the agreement, the pricing would be based on prevailing market rates.

Reliance Jio is the only Indian telecom operator with pan-India broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum and is preparing to launch 4G services in the country.

"We are continuing our effort to create a new age network which will provide innovative and empowering digital solutions to every Indian through our high speed 4G services," Sanjay Mashruwala, managing director, Reliance Jio said.

"We are building our network through a combination of infrastructure network that we are creating on our own and those that we are renting from quality partners. We already have such tower sharing agreements with all the major players in India, and this relationship with Indus Towers will further accelerate the rollout of our services," he added.

"Our footprint in 15 circles in India coupled with high network uptime levels, cost effective solutions, faster access to market and lower operational costs will provide Reliance Jio a robust and seamless telecom infrastructure," B.S. Shantharaju, chief executive officer, Indus Towers said.

"Additionally, our agreement with Reliance Jio will also bring benefits to our existing customers in the form of lower rentals and energy costs. At the same time, the infrastructure sharing will help in avoiding duplication of towers and benefit the environment through lower power and fuel consumption," he added.

Earlier this month, Reliance Jio has tied up with GTL Infrastructure for tower sharing. GTL Infra, together with Chennai Network Infra, has a combined portfolio of more than 27,800 towers spread across 22 telecom circles in India, and serving all the major service providers in the country.

In the towers space, Reliance Jio already has pacts with Ascend Telecom for more than 4,500 towers, with Tower Vision for 8,400 towers, with ATC India for 11,000 towers and with Viom Networks for 42,000 towers.

Reliance Jio holds spectrum in 1,800 MHz (across 14 circles) and 2,300 MHz (across 22 circles) capable of offering fourth generation (4G) wireless services.