FY2013-2014
Reliance Jio and Bharti Infratel Join Hands in Tower Infrastructure Sharing
New Delhi, March 4, 2014: Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (“Reliance Jio”), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and the first telecom operator to hold Pan India Unified License, and Bharti Infratel, India’s leading provider of telecom tower infrastructure, today announced the signing of a Master Services Agreement. Under the agreement, Reliance Jio would utilize the telecom tower infrastructure of Bharti Infratel to launch its services across the country. As per the agreement, the pricing would be at ‘arm’s length,’ based on prevailing market rates.
Sanjay Mashruwala, Managing Director, Reliance Jio said, “This agreement is in line with our earlier comprehensive telecom infrastructure sharing arrangement with Bharti Airtel Limited aimed at avoiding duplication of infrastructure, wherever possible, and to preserve capital and the environment. The agreement will help us with the faster roll out of our services across the country.”
D S Rawat, CEO - Bharti Infratel Limited said, “We are delighted with this agreement to offer our world-class telecom infrastructure to Reliance Jio. Our vast footprint and high network uptime levels will offer significant synergies of faster access to market and lower operational costs. The agreement would also benefit our existing customers with lower rentals and energy charges as a result of additional sharing. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with Reliance Jio.”
About Bharti Infratel Limited
Bharti Infratel is India’s leading provider of tower and related infrastructure and it deploys, owns and manages telecom towers and communication structures, for various mobile operators. The Company’s consolidated portfolio of over 82,000 telecom towers, which includes over 35,000 of its own towers and the balance from its 42% equity interest in Indus Towers, makes it one of the largest tower infrastructure providers in the country with presence in all 22 telecom circles. The Company has been the industry pioneer in adopting green energy initiatives for its operations. For further details visit, www.bharti-infratel.com
About Reliance Jio Infocomm
Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India’s largest private sector company, is the first telecom operator to hold pan India Unified License. This license authorises RJIL to provide all telecommunication services except Global Mobile Personal Communication by Satellite Service. RJIL holds spectrum in1800 MHz (across 14 circles) and 2300 MHz (across 22 circles) capable of offering fourth generation (4G) wireless services.
RJIL is setting up a pan India telecom network to provide to the highly underserviced India market, reliable (4th generation) high speed internet connectivity, rich communication services and various digital services on pan India basis in key domains such as education, healthcare, security, financial services, government citizen interfaces and entertainment. RJIL aims to provide anytime, anywhere access to innovative and empowering digital content, applications and services, thereby propelling India into global leadership in digital economy.
RJIL entered into agreements with Reliance Communications for mutual sharing of telecom towers and optical fibre network. It has also entered into an arrangement with Bharti Airtel for sharing of telecom towers and optical fibre which can be extended to other services as per mutual agreement of the two partners.
Reliance Jio is part of the “Bay Of Bengal Gateway” Cable System, planned to provide connectivity between South East Asia, South Asia and the Middle East, and also to Europe, Africa and to the Far East Asia through interconnections with other existing and newly built cable systems landing in India, the Middle East and Far East Asia.
RJIL’s subsidiary has been awarded with a Facility Based Operator License (“FBO License”) in Singapore which will allow it to buy, operate and sell undersea and/or terrestrial fibre connectivity, setup its internet point of presence, offer internet transit and peering services as well as data and voice roaming services in Singapore.
RJIL has finalised key agreements with its technology partners, service providers, infrastructure providers, application partners, device manufacturers and other strategic partners for the project. These strategic partners have committed significant resources, knowhow and global talent to support planning, deployment and testing activities currently underway.
From less than 700 professionals a year back, the RJIL Jio team has grown rapidly to a national footprint of over 3,000 professionals today.
