Reliance Jio signs tower sharing deal with GTL Infra

Company is planning to launch commercial 4G telecom services in 2015

Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL), the telecom arm of Reliance Industries, today signed a master services agreement for tower sharing with GTL Infrastructure which has a base of 27,800 towers across the country.

RJIL holds pan-India broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum and is planning to launch commercial 4G telecom services in 2015.

"GTL Infra, together with Chennai Network Infrastructure Limited (CNIL), has a combined tower portfolio of more than 27,800 towers spread across 22 telecom circles in India", the company said in a statement.

RJIL had also signed agreement with Viom Networks for its 42,000 towers, Reliance Communications for its 45,000 towers, ATC India for its 11,000 towers, Tower Vision for its 8,400 towers, Ascend Telecom for its over 4,500 towers.

The company had also signed a infrastructure sharing deal with Bharti Airtel to share infrastructure created by both parties to avoid duplication of infrastructure wherever possible.

"Our mission is to launch a pan India next-generation voice and data services. We will build the same through a judicious combination of own build and rented infrastructure," RJIL Managing Director Sanjay Mashruwala said.

Reliance Industries had earlier said that RJio will initially cover about 5,000 towns and cities accounting for over 90 per cent of urban India, as well as over 215,000 villages in India and the target is to expand this to over 600,000 villages.

"The launch of 4G networks and the rise in the consumption of data services is a growth driver for tower companies, and we at GTL Infra are geared up to capture the opportunity," Global Group Group CEO Charudatta Naik said.

Global Group is a infrastructure services group focused on telecom, shared network infrastructure and power. The Group has two companies - GTL Limited and GTL Infrastructure Limited.