Ascend Telecom said it will merge with India Telecom Infra Ltd (ITIL) with itself to create an entity with 4,000 towers spread across the country. While Ascend is owned by private equity company, New Silk Route, ITIL is jointly owned by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) and TVS Interconnect Systems. (TVSICS). Financial details pertaining to the deal were not disclosed.

Ascend and ITIL are both independent telecom tower operators whose customers include Idea Cellular, BSNL, Vodafone, Tata Teleservices, Aircel, amongst others. “The merger of ITIL and Ascend is extremely synergistic and provides all the stakeholders of both companies' enormous benefits in terms of an enlarged management team, increased scale, a pan-India footprint, and significant operational efficiencies,” said Mr R. Haresh, Chairman of TVSICS.