Rel Comm to invest Rs 15,000 cr for towers

Reliance Communications will be investing around Rs 15,000 crore to set up and install an additional 15,000 base transceiver stations (BTSs) in the country.

The company intends to complete the rollout of the BTSs in three months, making it the fastest telecom infrastructure rollout in the country.

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) director Rajesh Tiwari told Business Standard that the company was working at completing the rollout of towers by July 31, 2006.

On completion, the company would have a total of 30,000 BTSs across all its circles in the country. The installation of towers is under the company's plans to expand both its CDMA and GSM services.

According to Tiwari, this is the fastest rollout of BTSs anywhere in the world and requires massive planning both infrastructure and logistics wise. "This is a world record," he added.

Reliance Communications, formerly Reliance Infocomm, had an installed base of over 4,000 BTSs during 2001-2004, which was later increased to 5,000 BTSs by 2005. At present, the company has over 15,000 towers across the country. The company has over 30 million subscribers under both its CDMA and GSM operations and has a presence in 22 circles across the country.

The costs of setting up a tower varies. Ground-based towers cost up to Rs 1 crore, depending on the site and terrain. However, rooftop towers can cost only Rs 50,000, besides variable costs such as rent, fuel for generators, air-conditioning and maintenance. The company was in talks China's Huawei Technologies for sourcing of telecom infrastructure.

Tiwari, who was earlier credited for the fastest rollout of CDMA services in the world, is the man behind this mission too. Earlier, when Mukesh Ambani was heading the organisation (before the spilt), Tiwari was credited with rolling out the fastest CDMA services in the world.

Reliance Communications had also received shareholders' approval for hiving off towers into a subsidiary firm.