Telecom tower company Viom Networks is undertaking a restructuring exercise in a bid to streamline its operations. The restructuring is being done even as the tower industry is going through a tough phase.

According to top company officials, there could be some jobs affected due to the streamlining but those employees would be given suitable assistance in terms of alternate placements.

The officials, however, completely denied reports that as much as 40 per cent of the jobs could be cut. “The restructuring is part of our strategy to be more efficient in the current market situation but that does not mean there are massive job losses. There will be some exits who we will try to suitably place elsewhere,” said a top company official.

The recent cancellation of 2G licences has hit several telecom tower companies hard.

Tower companies, which were betting on the roll outs by new players such as Etisalat and STel, are hit with most of these players shutting down operations.

The Mumbai-based GTL Infra, for instance, is expecting a 6 per cent impact on its revenues.

The pace of roll-out of cellular towers has already declined significantly to just 8,000 a year compared with 14,000 in the previous financial year. According to data available with the Department of Telecom, over 40,000 new towers were added in 2009-10. A growth of only 2.3 per cent is expected by the end of the current year from 3.47 lakh towers on March 2011 to 3.55 lakh towers. This, after a 60 per cent year-on-year growth in 2008. The exit of some of the new 2G players will further slow down the roll out.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW