US giant American Tower Corporation takes a call on Indian telecom

Other foreign majors are headed for the exit, but ATC sees big potential in tower business

Over the past two years, Sistema of Russia and Telenor of Norway decided to call it a day after writing off their losses and UK-headquartered Vodafone reduced its exposure in the Indian market after merging with Aditya Birla’s Idea Cellular. The exception to this foreign disconnect with the Indian telecom market has been the US giant American Tower Corporation (ATC). 

A low-profile player in the otherwise aggressive and noisy telecom business, ATC has in the same period invested over $2.5 billion to acquire telecom tower assets to become India’s second largest telecom tower company after Indus Towers, the mega-joint venture