BSNL, RCom in talks for infra sharing

State-owned telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) has initiated discussions with private telecom player Reliance Communications (RCom) for sharing active and passive infrastructure.

If the deal gets through, this would be BSNL's first alliance with a private company and would also help the company set up the largest CDMA network in the country.

While RCom would get another tenant, for BSNL this would mean reducing its infrastructure rollout time as the company is planning to provide mobility over CDMA technology. The move will also enable the firms to set up the largest CDMA network in the country, sources close to the development said.

At a recent press conference, RCom Chairman Anil Ambani said that he was "confident of bagging two new nationwide tenants during the next quarter". BSNL had earlier stated that the company was in talks with private operators for sharing passive infrastructure, primarily towers.

When contacted, a RCom spokesperson said: "RCom is the first telecom operator to have demerged its passive infrastructure into a separate subsidiary, Reliance Infratel. The infrastructure arm has an independent tenancy-based business model to lease active and passive infrastructure to external tenants, in addition to the anchor customer Reliance Communications. Various companies express their interest in sharing our infrastructure and, as a company policy, we do not share specifics of any such discussions."

Sources in BSNL said the company was looking at sharing of infrastructure, however, no agreements have been reached. BSNL has over 36 million GSM customers and 4.5 million fixed (wireless in local loop) customers.