RCom, Aircel may sign $300 mn infrastructure deal

Reliance Communications' tower business Reliance Infratel is likely to enter into an end-to-end telecom infrastructure agreement with Aircel for towers, voice carriage and bulk bandwidth worth about $300 million.

According to sources, Aircel and Reliance Communications are close to entering into telecom infrastructure sharing agreement, estimated to be worth about $300 million, which will cover all circles where Aircel has rolled out its telecom services and also the new ones where it expects to launch services soon.

Reliance Communications (RCom) will execute this agreement through its tower subsidiary Reliance Infratel, in which RCom holds a 95 per cent stake.

When contacted, a RCOM Spokesperson declined to comment on the development.

The agreement would provide Aircel access to Reliance Infratel's nationwide tower infrastructure comprising 50,000 sites and optic cable fibre backbone. This would help Aircel optimise its operational costs, while expanding or upgrading its mobile coverage.

Sources said the agreement is expected to offer RCom a revenue upside of over Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion). RCom already has similar agreements with Etisalat DB and Sing Tel.