BSNL mobile towers to be hived off into separate firm

The Cabinet on Tuesday approved hiving off mobile towers of staterun telecom firm BSNL into a separate company. There are around 442,000 mobile towers in the country, out of which BSNL owns more than 66,000.

The Cabinet on Tuesday approved hiving off about 66,500 mobile towers of staterun Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) into a separate company with a view to monetising them by either listing the new entity or leasing the masts to private firms.

BSNL owns 15 per cent of the 442,000 mobile towers in the country.

“Cabinet has granted approval to BSNL to harness the full potential of its mobile towers by creating a separate completely owned subsidiary,” Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha told reporters after the Cabinet meet.

The government allows telecom operators and mobile tower companies to mutually share towers for lowering capital and operational expenses.

“BSNL has 15 per cent towers out of all mobile towers in the country. We have 66,457 mobile towers. Tenancy ratio was 1.14 was in the past. Average tenancy ratio of other service provider is 1.9. This (separate company) will lead to increase in our tenancy ratio as well. Other service provider will be able to use our tower,” Sinha said.

Tenancy ratio is derived by dividing number of base stations or antenna installed at mobile towers with total number of towers.