R-ADAG to launch first telecom tower exchange

The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group is setting up TowerX, a tower tenancy exchange platform, through which mobile operators, tower owners and owners who want to rent out space for towers can transact business and book tower capacity online.

This first-of-its-kind exchange is designed to help mobile operators save time on their roll-out plans, share infrastructure more efficiently and simplify the complex information on surplus capacity available on mobile towers that can be offered on rent.

Designed on the lines of a commodity exchange, the project is being implemented by Reliance Telecom Infrastructure Ltd, the company recently set up by spinning off Reliance Communications' (RCom's) tower business. Reliance Telecom Infrastructure already has over 14,000 telecom towers and plans to add 23,000 more this fiscal.

RCom is an anchor tenant for these towers but Reliance Telecom Infrastructure towers have space to host four more operators or tenants on each tower. By the end of this fiscal, the company will have over 100,000 tenancy slots on offer. Details of the geographical location, tower height, terrain and the rental demanded (fixed or variable) for all the towers will be available on the online platform.

Mobile operators will be able to log on and check the tower space available on rent and book space through an online payment gateway. Operators with a temporary requirement for tower capacity (due to sudden congestion in an area) can also book spare capacity and pay on a per-user basis. They can also give details of their projected requirement of towers in various areas online.

The tower tenancy exchange platform will also allow tower companies to offer tenancy slots for towers being built for advance booking.

The platform will rope in other competing tower companies being set up by operators (like Essar, Bharti and the Tatas) and independent infrastructure operators (like American Tower Company) who can register and use the platform to showcase details of their tower capacity on rent.

The exchange is also expected to see the emergence of tower site aggregators who can block tower sites from various tower companies at a negotiated price and then put them on the market for rentals.

Similarly, individuals who want to rent out space to companies to build towers (on top of their houses, for instance) can register and give details of their offer.

The exchange is being built with a capacity to handle over 2 million unique transactions a year and is expected to undertake over 500,000 transactions in the first year.