Bharti, Vodafone, Idea may
merge tower biz
|
Exploring
possibility of creating a mega tower company |
Thomas K Thomas
Apart from leveraging on
operational efficiency, the merger is aimed at getting a higher valuation for
their country-wide mobile infrastructure. The three companies together own more
than 70,000 towers across the country.
“The talks have been
going on for some time, though no finality has been given to it. The companies
are yet to agree on the modalities of being joint venture partners in terms of
the equity share that they would hold and other operational issues,” said a
source close to the negotiations.
One of the options being
discussed is to give equity proportionate to the number of towers that the
three companies own. According to industry estimates as of August, Bharti had 40,000 towers, Vodafone had 20,000 and Idea
owned almost 10,000 towers. Going by this formula, Bharti
could own 57 per cent in the merged entity while Vodafone and Idea cellular
could get 28.5 per cent and 14.5 per cent stake respectively.
Confirming that initial
discussions have begun, sources within the GSM industry said, “It is only a
natural progression of the earlier decision to voluntarily share
infrastructure. If the merger goes through, it would enable the operators to
commercially tap the potential of their infrastructure.”
Bharti and Idea had earlier announced
their decision to demerge their infrastructure into
separate companies in a bid to unlock the value by offloading minor equity.
“Merging their tower business would naturally push up the valuation higher. It
will also bring down the cost of operation drastically for the operators,” said
a market analyst. It could result in additional revenues for the three
companies as the infrastructure can be offered to new entrants who have
recently applied for licence. If the talks conclude
successfully, then the merged entity could give tough competition to the likes
of American Tower Corporation and Reliance Communications,
that also have jumped into the tower business. More than 3 lakh towers are required by 2010, when the user base is
expected to touch 500 million.
Scheme to promote new tech in rural areas launched
|
Telecom
Dept to fund 5 projects on pilot basis, calls for applications |
Rural
thrust
Each of
the tech
projects, which may be a tripartite effort, will be given Rs
50 lakh.
USO fund
initiating
project for setting up cellular infrastructure in rural areas.
Thomas
K. Thomas
New Delhi, Oct 5 The Department of
Telecom has launched a new scheme under the Universal Services Obligation fund
for supporting use of new technologies in providing communication services in
rural areas.
DoT will fund five such projects on a
pilot basis where innovative technologies can be deployed to offer telecom
services.
“The objective of the scheme is to
give exposure to new technologies for providing telecom services in rural and
remote areas of the country. The scheme will bring to light innovations
specifically suited to conditions prevailing in such areas. This will provide a
methodology by which such technologies can be tested on a pilot project basis in
a limited rural and remote area. The result could be seen and studied by
Telecom Service Providers for further action,” DoT
said.
Bids
invited
Bids have been invited from
interested companies with details of the project and technology that would be
deployed. Each of these projects would be given a support of Rs 50 lakh from the USO fund.
The new scheme is targeting
technologies including sharable base stations by multiple service providers,
smart antennas, new broadband technologies, broadband
over power lines, new versions of customer premises equipment, battery and
power plant equipment specially designed for rural areas and hybrid power.
DoT said that the pilot project may
be a tripartite effort with the technology provider giving the technology and
equipment, the telecom service provider providing requisite infrastructure and
the USO Fund providing the financial assistance.
Cellular
infrastructure
The USO fund administrator is also
initiating another project for setting up cellular infrastructure in rural
areas. DoT has called all interested operators and
infrastructure providers for a meeting on October 12 to discuss this project
which envisages rolling out 11,000 towers across the country. DoT had earlier floated a similar project for just over
7,000 towers which received massive response from a number of companies.
Some of the companies had bid so
aggressively that they promised to give money to the Government for undertaking
the project instead of taking support from the USO fund.
‘TRAI proposal on spectrum allocation erroneous’
“The TRAI has most
erroneously assumed a 100 per cent loading of a network which is both a
technical and practical impossibility,” says COAI.
Our Bureau
While TRAI had suggested
that operators be asked to pack in more than double their existing subscriber
base to be eligible for additional spectrum, GSM operators said that if the
errors in the TRAI calculations are taken into account then the actual
subscriber base required for more radio frequency will
conform to the existing policy. “Enhanced subscriber linkage criteria
recommended by TRAI are based on assumptions that are incorrect, technically
flawed and impossible to achieve. The TRAI has most erroneously assumed a 100
per cent loading of a network which is both a technical as well as a practical
impossibility. In reality, networks operate on 70 per cent loading,” COAI said
in a letter to DoT.
“In fact, if we were to
just correct the 100 per cent loading assumption of TRAI and bring it down to
the practical and realistic level of 70 per cent, the subscriber linkage of 30 lakh subscribers recommended by TRAI for 12.4 MHz in
BSNL to convert STD booths
into one-stop shops
Special Correspondent
CUDDALORE: All public
call offices with subscriber trunk dialling (STD)
facility in the Cuddalore region, comprising Cuddalore and Villupuram
districts, would be transformed into “one-stop shops,” according to T. Rajendran, General Manager, BSNL, Cuddalore
division.
Addressing a press
conference here, Mr. Rajendran said STD booths would
hereafter offer multiple services, including booking of new landline/cell phone
connections, selling prepaid and recharge coupons, accepting payment of phone
bills and so on.
There were about 4,000
STD booth operators or franchisees in the region, and they would now be
designated as direct selling agents. For the value-added services, they would
be paid suitable commissions, Mr. Rajendran said.
The wireless
in local loop (WLL) services were provided with high-speed internet
services. It had become possible because the handsets had the inbuilt modem
with a speed of 144 kilobytes per second (kbps), he said.
SMS
in WLL phones
Mr. Rajendran
said short messaging service (SMS) would also be made available soon in the WLL
phones. Through 34 telephone exchanges 43,012 WLL connections had been given so
far.
Hence, even the remote
rural areas where the territorial connections were not feasible could also join
the telecommunication revolution and enjoy the fruits of technological
development.
Source: The Hindu
Telecom panel meets over licensing norms
New Delhi, October 5
Telecom Commission, the policy making wing of the Department of Telecom, met
today to discuss regulator TRAI's recommendations on
licensing reforms, including pricing for the additonal
mobile (2G) spectrum.
Official sources said the
Commission examined all proposals and the draft policy made by the DoT's internal committee. There was consensus among the
Commission members on the decisions of the draft prepared by the internal
committee.
The Commission will again
meet on Monday to have further discussions on the same.
The Telecom Commission's
decision is not final unless approved by the communications and IT minister,
they said. — PTI
Source: The Tribune