RJI in tower sharing pact with Videocon Telecom

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio has entered into a deal with Videocon Telecom to share the latter’s 500 towers in UP(W), UP(E), Bihar and Jharkhand and may also sign similar pacts for 4G network sharing, internet broadband services, among others.

Videocon plans to deploy 6,000 additional towers within a year for rolling out its 4G services, which may also be shared with Reliance Jio.

With this deal, the telecom firms will able to optimize and share telecom infrastructure that will reduce costs and provide better QoS (Quality of Service), a statement said.

Reliance Jio will get strategic access to Videocon Telecom’s Tower infrastructure across VTL circles that will allow Reliance Jio advantages on cost saving, better network outreach and offer seamless network services to the consumers, the statement added.

In the future, both the firms may also explore possibilities to tie up in terms of 4G network sharing, optical fiber network sharing, internet broadband services and other mutually conducive opportunities.

Arvind Bali, director and CEO, Videocon Telecommunications, said: “Strategic deals like these go a long way in helping to eliminate the duplication of infrastructure and redundancy, while reducing costs, and improving the quality of service. We have our own Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) network and broadband services in Punjab which we would strengthen via this association.

In addition, we own National Long Distance (NLD) and International Long Distance (ILD) network, which can be shared in near future. Going forward, the possibilities can also be extended to roaming on 2G, 4G networks.’’

Reliance Jio is gearing up to launch 4G launch across the country next year. Meanwhile, Videocon Telecom has also announced rollout of its 4G LTE FDD services on 1800MHz across its operational six telecom circles where
it owns liberalized license.

Recently, Reliance Jio Infocomm has entered into a tower sharing agreement with Ascend Telecom Infrastructure.

With Videocon’s deal Jio has entered into the seventh tower sharing agreement as it has already tied up with Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Viom Towers and ATC India, among others, for using their tower infrastructures.