Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) recently signed a deal with state-owned telecom major BSNL to lease about 4,000 mobile towers. According to this deal, rentals are being fixed at a base rate of ₹38,000 per month for ground-based towers (GBT) and ₹ 24,900 per month for rooftop-based towers (RBT).
Should RJIL lease a minimum of 1,500 towers in the first year, these will be provided by BSNL at a rate of ₹ 35,000 per month for GBTs and ₹ 21,000 per month for RBTs. Besides, an added 5% discount will be applicable should RJIL commit to leasing a minimum of 1,000 towers within three months. RJIL is yet to announce its final decision regarding the number and timeline of the lease.
Strengthening its Digital Infrastructure
RJIL is the first telecom operatorto receive a unified licence for all 22 service areas in India. Secured in October 2013, this license will allow RJIL to provide the entire range of telecom services, including voice telephony.
Working towards strengthening its digital infrastructural backbone, RJIL is negotiating a series of agreements relating to procurement of collaborative equipment and costing for servicesand infrastructure. All of these collaborations are aimed at facilitating economies of scale and reducing the end price of the service providedto the customer.
Bridging the Gap in Broadband Penetration
Today, RJIL holds a pan-India broadband wireless access spectrum that may be used for 4G services. It also has radiowaves in the 1800 Mhz band or the 2G spectrum, which are used for 4G services worldwide.
RJIL has also struck infrastructure-sharing deals with Reliance Communications, American Tower Corporation, Tower Vision India, Ascend Telecom, Viom Networks and Bharti Infratel. The objective of such collaborations is to improve digital experiences pan-India.
RJIL signed tower-sharing deals with Tower Vision for 8,400 towers in May; with Ascend Telecom Infrastructure for 4,500 towers in June; and with Videocom Telecom, which operates in UP, Bihar and Jharkhand, for 500 towers in July. Also in July, RJIL signed a collaborative partnership with Bharti Airtel that allows both companies to share the capacity of a submarine cable.
RJIL has now become the 7th core member of India’s largest telecom operators’ association, COAI. As a result, it is now licensed by the Government of India (GoI) to provide unified communication services.
Considering its proactive measures, RJIL is expected to have well-developed infrastructure to ensure seamless connectivity and high-speed access when it launches its 4G services in 2015.