BSNL to hire cell towers from private operators
|
For
cost-competitive service rollout; opening of bids on Oct 31 |
Sharing Infrastructure
This is the first time that
the national telecom major has sought to take any infrastructure support from
other telecom companies.
BSNL wants to get into an hiring agreement with the infrastructure providers for a
period of 15 years.
Thomas K Thomas
Passive Infrastructure
The PSU has invited bids from
private companies who are willing to lease out their passive infrastructure
such as tower, shelter, generator sets and other power systems.
This is the first time that
the national telecom major has sought to take any infrastructure support from
other telecom companies. So far BSNL had refused to either share its
infrastructure with any of the other operators or hire from others.
However, this was leading to
huge competitive loss to the PSU as other cellular companies heavily depend on
each others’ infrastructure. Companies such as Bharti
Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone Essar are reaching out to new areas riding on each others’
network.
Some of the operators have
hired up to 60 per cent of their passive infrastructure requirement from others,
as it is helping them drive down costs significantly. Though BSNL has one of
the largest networks in the country, 60 per cent of the country’s population is
yet to be connected and going all alone would mean huge investments, which may
not be sustainable given that tariffs in
The move from BSNL could also
be due to considerable delay in procuring new equipment for its cellular
business. The tender floated in the early part of 2006 for connecting 60
million new mobile subscribers, which included supplying passive
infrastructure, was awarded only last month due to legal and political
interventions.
Therefore, BSNL has now
invited bids from just private mobile companies such as Reliance Communication,
Bharti Airtel and Essar — these together have more than one-lakh towers across the country.
Even standalone tower
companies such as GTL, American Tower Company and Quippo
could be vying for the project. BSNL will open the bids on October 31, which is
also the last day for submission of bids by any of the infrastructure
providers.
As per the conditions
mentioned in the bid document, BSNL wants to get into a hiring agreement with
the infrastructure providers for a period of 15 years, extendable by another
five years.
Source: The Business Line
BSNL launches mobile radio service
BSNL
has launched mobile radio services, which enables subscribers to listen to
their favourite songs by paying Re one per minute.
BSNL mobile users can also avail this service by paying a monthly fee of Rs 25 per month. Subscribers have to dial 1255533 for
accessing this service. BSNL claims it is the cheapest offer for mobile radio
services as the existing market rate is Rs 5 per
minute. —
Our
Bureau
Source:
The Hindu
Telecom
News dated 29-10-2007