Datacom awards Rs 2,000-crore contract to Aircel

Firming its plans to launch pan-India GSM services, Datacom Solutions, one of the new telecom licensees, has awarded a $400-million (Rs 2,000 crore) tower-sharing contract to Aircel Cellular. Under the agreement, spread over a 16-month period, Datacom will get access to 5,000 of Aircel’s towers across various circles.

Aircel, in which Malaysia’s Maxis Communications Berhad owns a 74 per cent stake, has over 15,000 towers across 17 circles in the country. Datacom is a joint venture between Videocon Group and industrialist Mahendra Nahata of Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd.

Videocon’s Chairman and Managing Director Venugopal Dhoot confirmed the development.“We have entered into a passive infrastructure sharing agreement with Aircel, and the deal is for around 5,000 towers. This is a landmark deal and a unique opportunity for Datacom Solutions as this will enable a faster rollout of services across all the 22 circles in the country,” Dhoot told Business Standard.

Datacom Solutions, in which Videocon Group holds a 64 per cent stake, has also begun rolling out of its own towers. The company is also in talks with other operators for similar deals.

Dhoot said Datacom had begun rolling out its network and infrastructure across the 22 telecom circles in the country, for which it had earlier been awarded a licence and then spectrum space. “We are ready for the commercial rollout. This would be done anytime now,” he added.

An Aircel spokesperson declined to comment.

Indian telecom providers have been increasingly outsourcing their IT infrastructure, as it would enable them to be asset-light and concentrate on their core competencies. The trend was started by Bharti-Airtel’s deal with IBM, which has now risen to over $2 billion.

Recently, Wipro won a Rs 2,500-crore deal from Unitech Wireless. In January 2008, Aircel had awarded a $600-million deal to Wipro, while Aditya Birla group company Idea Cellular had signed a 10-year IT outsourcing deal with IBM. Idea Cellular’s deal was estimated to be $600-800 million. Reliance Communications is in advanced stages of discussions with Aircel for a $300-million deal.