BSNL looking for private players to operate tower, cable network

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is scouting for private telecom infrastructure companies to manage its tower and optical fibre cable network across the country.

According to BSNL's plan, the private player will be asked to manage, operate and maintain the PSU's infrastructure across the country. The private partner will also be allowed to further rent out capacity to other players.

Mr R.K. Upadhyay, Chairman and Managing Director, BSNL, told Business Line , “Our new business unit is finalising the plan. We hope to float the request for proposal in one month's time. This is one of the new revenue streams for BSNL going forward.”

To bring down cost

BSNL has nearly 70,000 towers and about 6.25 lakh route km of optical fibre cables across the country.

While it has tried to enter into tower sharing arrangements with private players, the new plan will bring down the cost of owning this infrastructure.

According to Mr Upadhyay, once a private player takes over the mobile towers, then the cost of maintaining the sites, including security, air-conditioning and diesel will be borne by the partner. BSNL will continue to own the towers and also occupy one slot of the tower.

“The partner will be free to rent out space to other mobile operators for a fee,” Mr Upadhyay said. The partner is likely to be chosen on a circle by circle basis.

BSNL's move is in line with other mobile operators who have hived off their tower infrastructure into a separate company.

While BSNL, being a PSU cannot hive off the towers, it is doing the next best thing by outsourcing the entire infrastructure. BSNL officials said that they were expecting companies such as Viom Networks, GTL and American Tower Company to bid for the project.

On leasing out optical fibre cables, Mr Upadhyay said that the cables will be lit and not dark, the difference being that the former is ready-to-use without any additional investment by the operator who rents out capacity. But this will not be done for last mile access through local loop unbundling.

Analysts' view

The BSNL Chairman is hoping to turn around the company in two years' time through such measures.

But market analysts said that the PSU has to sweeten the offer for private players to bite into such partnership.

“If BSNL wants to get serious players as partners, then, it has to make a business offer that makes sense for both sides. In the past, BSNL has tried to rope in private partners but got bids from unreliable players because the tender conditions were so tough,” said a market analyst.

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