Reliance Jio, Bharti Infratel to share towers as well

Moneylife Digital Team 04 March 2014

Reliance Jio would utilise Bharti Infratel’s towers to launch its 4G services across the country. RJio had already signed agreements to use RCom’s inter-city fibre optic network and Bharti Airtel’s submarine cable

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) unit Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio) has signed an agreement for sharing tower infrastructure of Bharti Infratel. No financial details were given, but in a release RJio said, “…the pricing would be at ‘arm’s length,’ based on prevailing market rates.”

Reliance Jio would utilise Bharti Infratel’s towers to launch its 4G services across the country.

“This agreement is in line with our earlier comprehensive telecom infrastructure sharing arrangement with Bharti Airtel aimed at avoiding duplication of infrastructure, wherever possible, and to preserve capital and the environment. The agreement will help us with the faster roll out of our services across the country,” said Sanjay Mashruwala, Managing Director at RJio.

DS Rawat, chief executive of Bharti Infratel, said, “The agreement would also benefit our existing customers with lower rentals and energy charges as a result of additional sharing”.

Earlier in December, RJio and Bharti Airtel Ltd decided to share each other’s telecom infrastructure. Under the arrangement, both companies decided to share infrastructure, including optic fibre network (inter and intra city), submarine cable networks, towers and internet broadband services.

Last year, RJio also signed agreements with Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications (RCom) for using its inter-city fibre optic network and with Bharti Airtel for use the telecom services provider’s submarine cable that connects India and Singapore.

As per the agreement, RJio would use RCom’s multiple fibre pairs spread over 1.2 lakh km across the country for providing backbone to roll out its 4G services. RJio agreed to pay about Rs1,200 crore to RCom as one time indefeasible right to use (IRU) fees for sharing the fibre optic network.

Similarly, RJio would use the dedicated fibre pair on i2i, the submarine cable owned by Bharti Airtel. It will connect RJio directly to the world’s major business hubs and ISPs, thereby, helping the operator to meet the bandwidth demand and provide ultra-fast data experience to its customers.

Reliance Jio Infocomm is the only company to have nationwide permits for 4G broadband services.

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