The Hindu Business Line : Reliance, Bharti in talks for infrastructure sharing

The largest CDMA operator in the country, Reliance Communications, and the largest GSM cellular operator, the Bharti Group, are in talks to share about 2,000 cell sites across the country.

The move will enable the two operators to cut down on infrastructure costs drastically, in turn resulting in cheaper tariffs.

This is in line with the decision taken by the Government and the telecom operators to share infrastructure as part of a project called Mobile Operators' Shared Tower (MOST).

According to industry sources, the two companies are discussing the modalities and a final decision may be announced in a few weeks.

When contacted, a Bharti Airtel spokesperson said: "Bharti Airtel has always supported infrastructure sharing among telecom operators as it fuels industry growth. However, we do not comment on any discussions with individual operators."

Earlier this year, the Minister for Communications and IT, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, unveiled project MOST, in which telecom operators decided to share passive infrastructure such as towers.

Apart from reducing the rollout cost, the move aims at improving the aesthetics of a city.

With as many as six operators in some States, there are as many as 70,000 towers already and another 1.4 lakh towers would be required by 2007 at a cost of Rs 25,000 crore to cater to the growing cellular subscriber base.

There are companies that have taken up setting up passive infrastructure as a source of revenue. Companies such as Quipo are aiming to build at least 5,000 towers, which will be leased out to mobile operators.

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