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Reflecting the intensity of competition and innovation across the mobile ecosystem, we saw a record 600 entries and an exceptionally high-quality field of contenders vying for this year’s Global Mobile Awards,” said Michael O’Hara, Chief Marketing Officer, GSMA. “It is a significant achievement to have made the shortlist, and our warmest congratulations go to all the nominees announced today. We look forward to the unveiling of the winners at the Mobile World Congress on Tuesday, 28th February 2012.
180 areas were studied across the capital to understand the extent of EMF emitting from the Mobile Towers, revealed that the Magnetic field readings were 100 times below International Safety guidelines. Download press release as pdf.
Indus Towers, a joint venture between Bharti Group, Idea Cellular and Vodafone Essar, on Monday said it would add around 5,000 telecom towers every year in the next five years to boost mobile connectivity. The company owns more than 1.1-lakh towers and has operations in 16 out of the 22 telecom circles.
“We are planning to add nearly 5,000 telecom towers every year in the next five years and we expect to be a $2 billion company in revenue terms,” Indus Towers CEO B. S. Shantharaju told journalists here. Vodafone Essar and Bharti Group hold 42 per cent stake each in the company, while the remaining 16 per cent is being held by the Idea Group.
“We have exhibited a business edge over its competitors even in times of tough market conditions and intense competition. The cost comes on an average to Rs.23 lakh per tower for installing them,” Mr. Shantharaju said.
“Currently, nearly 84 per cent of the telecom towers are being used by the joint venture companies of Indus Towers and about 16 per cent by the new telecom service providers,” Mr. Shantharaju said.
Telecom tower firm Indus Towers on Monday said it plans to add nearly 5,000 telecom towers every year for the next five years and expects to be a over $2-billion company in the current fiscal.
Vodafone Essar and Bharti Group hold 42 per cent stake each in the company and Idea Group has the remaining 16 per cent stake. The company, which has operations in 16 out of the 22 telecom circles, currently owns more than 1.1 lakh towers.
Indus Towers also said that it was the first telecom tower company in the world to have achieved a portfolio of over two lakh tenancies within a few years of starting its operations.
Nearly 84 per cent of the telecom towers are being used by the joint venture companies of Indus Tower and about 16 per cent by the new telecom service providers.
Indus has reached 2,00,000 tenancies in less than 33 months and has an average tenancy rate which is fast approaching 2.0. In comparison Viom, the tower company jointly owned by Tata Group and Quippo, has 38,000 towers with a tenancy rate of 2.2
Mr B.S. Shantharaju, Chief Executive Officer, Indus Towers said, “Currently, there exists a huge opportunity for tower companies in servicing the needs of 3G and BWA along with addressing the needs of new operators which are going to deploy their networks. This effect would gradually transcend to smaller cities and rural areas.”
The world’s largest independent tower company, Indus Towers, on Monday said it would add a total of 5,000 towers to its base of over 1 lakh towers and clock a revenue of $2 billion this fiscal. Indus Towers, a 42:42:16, joint venture between Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar and Idea Cellular boasts of over 2 lakh tenancies on its tower base of 1,10,000 towers. This translates into a tenancy ratio of about 1.85 per tower implying that its each tower supports 1.85 operators.
Sanjeev Aga, managing director of Idea Cellular, had last year said that Indus Towers planned to go public in the fiscal 2012.
However, B S Shantharaju, CEO Indus Towers, said that currently there were no plans to do so, though the company’s announcement on Monday was widely believed to be first part of its IPO preparations.
India's leading telecom tower company, Indus Towers, will earn more than $ 2 billion in revenues by the end of this fiscal and add more than 5,000 towers every year for the next five years, a senior company executive said. "We are planning to add nearly 5,000 telecom towers every year in the next five years and we expect to be a $ 2 billion company in revenue terms this fiscal," Indus Towers' chief executive officer BS Shantharaju said on Monday.
Indus Towers is a joint venture company of Bhari Group, Idea Group and Vodafone Essar. Bharti Vodafone hold 42% stake each in the company, while Idea Cellular holds the remaining 16% stake.
The mobile tower firm turned profitable this year and is ready to come out with an initial public offering, even as executives declined to put a timeline to it. "We're ready but there is no urgency . The timing depends on my shareholders. However, we would like to achieve a higher teledensity ," Shantharaju said.
If you are an investor in generator manufacturers, now is a good time to rethink your strategy.
Indus Towers, India’s largest consumer of diesel generators and its largest telecom tower firm, is looking at replacing the thousands of diesel generators it runs with sparkling new solar panels.The company, jointly owned by mobile operators Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular, buys nearly 35% of all diesel generators made in India.
“The initial programme will cover 2,500 towers,” said BS Shantaraju, CEO of Indus Towers.Indus, formed three years ago, hosts 48% of all cell-phone antennas in the country. It also accounts for more than a third of the three lakh telecom towers in India.
In all, it consumes three million units of electricity a year, enough to power more than one million Indian homes and is the single-largest power consuming company in each of the 16 states where it has operations.
While most of the 1.1 lakh towers owned by Indus are powered by the grid, operators have to depend on diesel generators in rural and far-flung areas, such as mountains and jungles. There are around 20,000-30,000 diesel-fuelled telecom towers in the country, according to industry estimates.
Shantaraju says Indus has had mixed luck with trying alternate fuels. Among those that it has tried are hydrogen-powered fuel cells and liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG. “We are working on an alternative to seeking the commercial LPG from the market. Otherwise, we will end up buying all the LPG in the country,” the CEO said.
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Indus Towers, a joint venture between three top telecom companies— Airtel, Vodafone and Idea— today became the first company in the world to have over 100,000 towers under its management. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, each hold 42 per cent stake in Indus Towers, while Idea Cellular holds 16 per cent.
“In a short span, Indus Towers has built a robust, scalable, asset centric operating model, which provides passive infrastructure services to all operators on a non- discriminatory basis with enhanced focus on energy efficiency,” said Akhil Gupta, chairman, Indus Towers. The company is increasing its portfolio by nearly 7,000 additional tower tenants every month and is working towards a tenancy ratio of two per site.
“Indus will also be opening a state-of-the-art 24x7 Tower Operating Center by July 2009, which will monitor, control and analyse all tower site related activities to provide a better network uptime to its customers,” a company statement said.
The company is also working with TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute, India) to explore the possibility of integration of energy efficiency measures as well as renewable energy-based supply side options in telecom shelters in India and remains strongly committed to the reduction of carbon emissions.
When Akhil Gupta, deputy group CEO and managing director of Bharti Enterprises, called Arun Sarin, then chairman of Vodafone, and suggested they share their mobile towers, Sarin was shocked. While independent tower companies do exist, hardly anywhere, Gupta says, “have three fierce competitors tied up in the back-end to essentially fight each other in the streets in the front-end.” In a sector as competitive as telecom, such a concept was pretty much unheard of. However, after hearing Gupta out, Vodafone saw the potential. Once a JV was formed between them, they called Idea Cellular, another operator with a wide presence, and in December 2007, Indus Towers was formed.
Indus was formed as an independent tower company to provide passive infrastructure services to all operators in the country on a non-discriminatory basis. The three companies merged their towers (over 70,000) in 16 circles in India, with Bharti and Vodafone owning a 42 per cent stake each, while Idea holds 16 per cent. The idea was to optimally utilise their resources and cut back on the investment required to set up towers, which takes up almost 60 per cent of a mobile company’s capital expenditure. It costs an average Rs 30 lakh to set up a tower.
“The idea emanated from the fundamental philosophy that companies should focus on their core competency,” says Gupta, who is also the chairman of Indus Towers. “The business was about engineering, and we thought that this domain knowledge was better outside, given the skill sets required.” Thanks to cut-throat competition between operators, the telecom industry grew in, what Gupta calls, an “unscientific manner”, with clusters of mobile towers coming up within a short radius.
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Indus Towers, an independent telecom tower company, has become the first ever in the world to have 1 lakh towers under its management. The company is a JV between Vodafone-Essar, Bharti Group and Idea Cellular. Vodafone Essar and Bharti Airtel each hold 42% stake in the company, and Idea Celluar has the remaining 16% stake. It operates in 16 telecom circles across India.
Commenting upon the development, Akhil Gupta, chairman-Indus Towers, and deputy CEO of Bharti Airtel said, “In a short span, Indus Towers has built a robust, scalable, asset-centric operating model, which provides passive infrastructure services to all operators on a non-discriminatory basis with enhanced focus on energy efficiency. Our large towers portfolio provides us excellent geographical coverage and increased speed to market. This makes us a partner of choice for all established and new telecom operators in India.”
Sharing passive infrastructure is a fast catching up trend across the globe, as it helps keep the operating as well as capital expenditures low, a dire need of telecom companies given the global financial meltdown. A recent report by global consultancy firm E&Y titled the ‘The Power of the Pipe’ has outlined passive infrastructure as one of the biggest needs of the hour in the short term even for matured markets, the US and Europe. The report argues that at this point of time it will become increasingly difficult for telecom companies to keep justifying to their stakeholders the huge amounts of capital injection which they need to perform on an annual basis. Hence, they need to look at opportunities to provide innovative services while keeping their costs down in this highly technological driven sector. It further adds that
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Indus Towers, a joint venture between three top telecom companies — Airtel, Vodafone and Idea — on Sunday became the first company in the world to have over one lakh towers under its management. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, each hold 42% stake in Indus Towers while Idea Cellular has 16%.
“In a short span, Indus Towers has built a robust, scalable, asset centric operating model, which provides passive infrastructure services to all operators on a non-discriminatory basis with enhanced focus on energy efficiency,” Indus Towers chairman Akhil Gupta said.
With the telecom industry infrastructure, especially for mobile services, growing at over 35% in the next two years, Indus Towers is expected to play a crucial role in taking the services across the nation and also in rural areas. It is increasing its portfolio by nearly 7,000 additional tower tenants every month and is working towards a tenancy ratio of two per site. “Indus will also be opening a state-of-the-art 24x7 Tower Operating Center by July 2009, which will monitor, control and analyse all tower site related activities to provide a better network uptime to its customers,” the statement said.
Indus Towers, a joint venture between three top telecom companies— Airtel, Vodafone and Idea— today became the first company in the world to have over 100,000 towers under its management. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, each hold 42 per cent stake in Indus Towers, while Idea Cellular holds 16 per cent.
“In a short span, Indus Towers has built a robust, scalable, asset centric operating model, which provides passive infrastructure services to all operators on a non- discriminatory basis with enhanced focus on energy efficiency,” said Akhil Gupta, chairman, Indus Towers. The company is increasing its portfolio by nearly 7,000 additional tower tenants every month and is working towards a tenancy ratio of two per site.
“Indus will also be opening a state-of-the-art 24x7 Tower Operating Center by July 2009, which will monitor, control and analyse all tower site related activities to provide a better network uptime to its customers,” a company statement said.
The company is also working with TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute, India) to explore the possibility of integration of energy efficiency measures as well as renewable energy-based supply side options in telecom shelters in India and remains strongly committed to the reduction of carbon emissions.
