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Tower sharing to save Indian telcos $1.5bn
08 February 2010
Operators in India can save $1.5 billion in 2010 alone from tower sharing, with many companies saving around $300 million each
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[India]
[Bharti Infratel]
[Indus Towers]
[Vodafone Essar]
[Reliance]
[Idea Cellular]
Indian telecom companies will make savings of least $1.5 billion in 2010 due to their sharing of towers and infrastructure, according to reports in Indian newspaper The Economic Times.
Bharti Infratel would spend $300 million lesser in the year to March, while Vodafone Essar will reduce costs on its planned $2.1 billion network expansion by a fifth. Idea Cellular has cut down its expenditure by $213.7 million this fiscal due to infrastructure sharing.
Bharti is now spending $700 million on expanding its tower network, as against its earlier estimate of $1 billion in 2009-10. The company’s capital expenditure is estimated to be about $2.7 billion after factoring in the tower unit’s reduction.
Bharti, Vodafone and Idea had also pooled in their infrastructure across 16 regions — or circles — into Indus Towers. Vodafone said revenues for its Indian entity had risen 14% to $1.2 billion in the December quarter, primarily due to network sharing in Indus Towers.
Reliance Communications, which had initially projected spending $2.1 billion this fiscal year, now says it would require only $962 million in 2009-10. GTB