Airtel ready to share telecom infrastructure

Thursday, 21 February 2008, 20:30 IST
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New Delhi: Bharti Airtel, India's leading mobile telecom services firm, Thursday said it was ready to share its active infrastructure with other operators. At present Indian telecom operators are allowed to share passive infrastructure, such as towers, buildings and power backup facilities. Active infrastructure includes antennae, ports, nods, transmission systems, feeder cables and repeaters. "We are very keen that maximum infrastructure, active or passive, be shared. We are open to sharing active infrastructure with other mobile operators - even with new companies," Sunil B. Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel, told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here. Last year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) had recommended that the operators share active infrastructure. The recommendations are still lying with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The recommendations, if accepted by DoT, would induce further lowering of call charges by operators across the board. Last year, Bharti had established a tower company called Indus Towers in collaboration with Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular.
Source: IANS
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