Telecom mast operator Indus Towers today said it has achieved a tenancy ratio of over 2, which means the company now has an average of two operators per site across its portfolio.
"Indus began as the largest telecom tower company in 2008 with a modest tenancy ratio of 1.28 and within five years reached this momentous achievement of 2.0X tenancies," the company said in a statement.
Tenancy ratio refers to the number of tenants (operators) who have put up their antennae and other active infrastructure on the towers.
Indus Towers, which is a joint venture company of Bharti Group, Idea Group and Vodafone India, has achieved 229,760 tenancies on 112,615 towers in 15 circles across the country.
"We are really privileged to accomplish an important milestone of getting into the league of 2.0X tenancies in India," Indus Towers CEO BS Shantharaju said.
Viom Networks, which is a joint venture of Tata Teleservices and SREI Infrastructure, has a tenancy ratio of 2.25 whereas Bharti Infratel has an average sharing factor of 1.93.
Reliance Infratel, the tower arm of Reliance Communications has a tenancy ratio of 1.7 currently but the company said it is likely to go up to 2.6 by the end of the current fiscal following the sharing agreement signed with Reliance Jio Infocomm.
Analysts estimate India will need to add new towers in the next two to three years, as the number of mobile phone customers crosses the 900-million mark.
The need for tower sharing will increase immensely in the current economic scenario as companies expand into rural areas and roll out data networks, the company said.
