Reliance Jio Infocomm has signed a tower-sharing agreement with Indus Towers that will see the operator using all of the latter firm’s pan-Indian infrastructure at “prevailing market rates”.
Indus is the world’s largest tower firm and has around 115,000 towers. The companies released a joint statement highlighting the environmental benefits of avoiding a duplicate infrastructure buildout.
“We are continuing our effort to create a new age network which will provide innovative and empowering digital solutions to every Indian through our high-speed 4G services,” said Sanjay Mashruwala, managing director at Jio. “We are building our network through a combination of infrastructure network that we are creating on our own and those that we are renting from quality partners.”
Jio has struck a number of infrastructure-sharing agreements ahead of its nationwide 4G launch next year. The operator, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, has also signed agreements – primarily aimed at avoiding network duplication - with GTL Infra and Viom Networks as well as rival operator Bharti Airtel.
Last year Jio signed an INR120 billion ($2.1 billion) deal with Reliance Communications (RCom), which was perhaps the first real indicator of Jio controller Mukesh Ambani’s ambitions in the Indian mobile space. It also signalled the thawing of relations between Ambani and RCom’s owner – his younger brother Anil.
The RCom deal will see Jio leasing up to 45,000 ground and rooftop towers across RCom’s nationwide network. The two companies will also work together on future tower constructions, ensuring “deep penetration and seamless delivery of next generation services”.
