Etisalat, RCom sign infrastructure sharing pact
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Etisalat, RCom sign infrastructure sharing pact
New Delhi: Etisalat DB, a joint venture between Dubai-based telecom major Etisalat and Mumbai's Dynamix Balwas group (DB), and the Anil Ambani-promoted telephony operator Reliance Communications (RCom), have entered into an agreement to share infrastructure for 10 years, a RCom statement said Wednesday. The agreement, which will enable Etisalat DB to share tower and transmission infrastructure owned by RCom and sister company Reliance Infratel, is expected to increase RCom's revenues by 10,000 crore ($2.2 billion), the company said in the statement. Etisalat has picked up a 45-percent stake in DB group's flagship company Swan Telecom for $900 million, which took the Indian firm's book value to $2 billion even before it launched services. Dynamix Balwas is into realty, hospitality, dairy and telecom. "This significant development is part of our overall commitment to provide consumers with quality service and reach at the time of launch," said Etisalat Chairman Mohammad Hassan Omran. "This alliance provides us with key, strategic advantages that will ensure a robust, speed to market and cost-effective rollout of services," Omran added. Following this agreement, Etisalat DB will be able to roll out services in 15 telecom circles in India. "This win-win agreement demonstrates Reliance Communications' capabilities to enable operators to go to the market with a bouquet of telecom infrastructure services. This will ensure a faster rollout, optimum costs and a time to market advantage," said RCom chairman Anil Ambani in a statement. Etisalat, which has operations across Asia and Africa, has licences for telecom operations in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West), Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. The DB group was in the midst of a controversy last year after it failed to roll out services despite receiving the spectrum. RCom provides comprehensive telecom infrastructure sharing services including tower infrastructure, transmission connectivity to the telecom sites, bandwidth and fibre options, domestic and international long distance carriage services, and other core network equipment. Reliance Infratel, a subsidiary of Reliance Communications, has over 50,000 telecom towers offering facilities to telecom operators across about 20,000 towns and over five lakh villages.
Source: IANS
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