Reliance Jio Infocomm signs Rs 12,000 crore telecom tower sharing deal with Reliance Communications

Telecom Lead India: Reliance Jio Infocomm, the 4G venture of Reliance Industries, has signed a Rs 12,000 crore telecom tower sharing deal with Reliance Communications.

The telecom tower sharing contract will assist billionaire Mukesh Ambani to speed up the roll out of 4G services across the country.

Reliance Jio Infocomm on Friday, one day after announcing 4G plans at the annual general meeting of RIL, said it will utilize upto 45,000 ground and rooftop based towers of Reliance Communications.

The deal provides for joint working arrangements to configure the scope of additional towers to be built at new locations to ensure deep penetration and seamless delivery of next generation services.

 

TelecomLead.com, India’s #1 B2B telecom portal, has been advocating (via its articles) Reliance Jio Infocomm about the need for an association with an existing telecom operator to roll out 4G and become an integrated telecom player to offer seamless data and voice offerings to Indian mobile phone users.

In April 2013, Reliance Jio Infocomm had signed Rs 1,200 crore network sharing deal with Reliance Communications.

Both the deals do not include any equity infusion.

As per the deal signed in April, Reliance Communications will benefit from approximately Rs 1,200 crore as one time indefeasible right to use (IRU) fees for sharing its inter-city fiber optic network infrastructure. Reliance Jio will utilize multiple fiber pairs across Reliance Communications’ 1,20,000 kilometers inter-city fiber optic network to provide backbone for rolling out its 4G / LTE services.

As per the June 2013 deal, announced today, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Reliance Communications will derive major benefits from sharing of capital and operating costs.

Mukesh Ambani on Thursday said the 4G venture will add around 7,000 resources this year to take the total employee base to 10,000 from 3,000 at present.

This news has cheered telecom industry professionals across the country. TelecomLead.com’s LinkedIn account has received several comments.

RIL is committing Rs 150,000 crore investment in the next three years for its expansion plans including 4G venture. RIL did not share details about its specific investment in the 4G project.

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