Telecom Lead India: Infotel Broadband Services, a
subsidiary of Reliance Industries, is planning to set up over 100,000 towers
for its 4G LTE operations in the next three years.
The decision to set up its own towers is seen as a
strategic shift from its earlier plan to have an asset-light model.
The current plan of Infotel Broadband Services is likely
to disappoint telecom tower companies, including Reliance Infratel owned by
Anil Ambani, which were hoping the RIL group company would use their passive
infrastructure for its services.
According to a report in Economic Times, Infotel Broadband had invited bids
earlier this year from tower operators for leasing around 26,000 towers for the
first phase of its wireless broadband foray. But those plans are on hold. The
company has sought quotes and samples from equipment vendors for carbon fiber
telecom towers.
The estimated outlay for the company’s launch, which is expected later this
year or early next year, has been nearly doubled to $8-9 billion, from the
originally stated $4 billion in 2010.
The company may partly use its own towers while it may rent the rest from
existing tower companies. But if Infotel Broadband does meet its target of
building 100,000 towers, there might not be any need for it to rent further
capacity.
RIL remains committed toward 4G LTE: Mukesh D Ambani
Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman and Managing Director
Mukesh D Ambani said the group remains committed towards providing world class,
high speed wireless data services through the launch of broadband access
business.
RIL on Friday said its subsidiary Infotel Broadband
Services is in the process of setting up a broadband wireless network using
advanced technologies.
It is in the process of finalizing the arrangement with
leading global technology players, service providers, infrastructure providers,
application developers, device manufacturers and others to help usher the 4G
revolution into India.
