Reliance Jio Infocomm, BSNL sign tower sharing deal

Reliance Jio Infocomm has signed a deal with state-owned telecom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) for leasing around 4,000 mobile towers.

According to the deal, BSNL will be offering a base rate of Rs 38,000 per month for ground based towers (GBT) and Rs 24,900 per month for rooftop based towers (RBT).

BSNL, however, will offer discounted rates if Reliance Jio commits to leasing at least 1,500 towers in the first year.

"The rent for ground towers will be Rs 35,000 per month and Rs 21,000 per month for rooftop towers if Reliance Jio commits leasing of 1,500 towers in first year," BSNL Director (Consumer Mobility) Anupam Shrivastava said.

He added there is also a provision of 5 per cent discount if Reliance Jio commits leasing of at least 1,000 towers within three months.

When contacted, no response was received from the Mukesh Ambani-led company on the deal.

Reliance Jio already has an agreement with Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Viom Network, American Tower Company and Ascend Telecom Infrastructure to utilise their infrastructure.

The company holds pan-India broadband wireless access spectrum that can be used for 4G services. Besides, it won radiowaves in the 1800 Mhz band, widely known as 2G spectrum, which is also being used for 4G services worldwide.

Reliance Jio is the first telecom operator in the country to get a unified licence for all 22 service areas in India.

The unified licence, which it received in October, will allow Reliance Jio to offer all telecom services, including voice telephony.