BSNL in tower-sharing talks with leading private operators

NEW DELHI: Public sector telco BSNL is negotiating with leading private operators to enter into tower sharing agreement, a move that would help the ailing PSU to turnaround.

"We are in talks with various service providers in order to make arrangement so that we can share our idle tower infrastructure with them and generate revenues in order to make our bottom line healthy," BSNL CMD RK Upadhyay said without naming any of the telecom service provider. "This (tower sharing pact) will take time as many decisions needs to be taken like rent issue and duration of rented towers. I expect this will be done within this fiscal year," he said.

Sources in the know said that BSNL is in talks with Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications for this purpose.

"We are also looking to unlock the value of our idle real estate which will again be helpful to make our bottom line positive," Upadhyay added.