Viom, Microqual only bidders for PowerGrid tower lease

Viom Networks and Microqual Techno are the only two bidders for state-run power transmission firm PowerGrid’s tender to lease out its tower infrastructure.

A senior company official confirmed the development and said it would take about two to three months to finalise the award of the tender.

The company had invited bids for leasing out about 12,000 towers in four states — Jammu & Kashmir, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh — to independent tower firms or mobile service providers. The final day for bidding was November 29.

PowerGrid has about 150,000 towers across the country, about 70 per cent of these in semi-urban and rural areas.The official said the company would lease out its towers in the rest of the country in the next financial year.

When asked, Viom Networks’ spokesperson said, “We keep evaluating various business opportunities to strengthen our position in the industry. However, as a policy we do not comment on specific business proposals.” Viom Networks was earlier Quippo-WTTIL, a joint venture between Quippo Telecom Infrastructure and Tata Teleservices’ Wireless TT Info Services Ltd.

Microqual, based in Mumbai, also confirmed the news. It offers end-to-end infrastructure solutions to wireless telecommunication operators (GSM, CDMA, WiMax and 3G).

In the first half of this year, PowerGrid had received an in-principle approval from its board of directors for venturing into this new business stream of leasing out its towers.The company expects its revenues from the telecom business to grow to Rs 350-400 crore in the next four to five years, from Rs 150 crore currently.

With the industry adding 14-15 million subscribers monthly and entry of new operators; companies are looking to share infrastructure and save cost.

A telecom tower costs Rs 10-15 lakh. PowerGrid had diversified into the telecom sector four years ago. It offers end-to-end leasing of bandwidth to telecom operators, through its overhead transmission infrastructure.