Spice, Tower Vision in Mega Deal
Friday, October 5th, 2007Spice Communications has reportedly entered into an approximately Rs 250 crore worth agreement with UK-based Tower Vision to build and lease-out 1,000-odd tower sites.
Tower Vision has been present in the country since July 2005, when it started a techno-financial mobilization but formally launched its Indian operations only in January this year post receiving FIPB (Foreign Investment Promotion Board) approval.
Speaking about the latest deal, Amit Ganani, chief executive officer, Tower Vision, said that they have penned a Rs 250 crore deal with Spice Communications for providing tower sites for the company’s cellular network in Punjab and Karnataka.
Ganani further said that this is their first Indian order, and that they are in negotiations with other cellular operators for similar deals. In Ganani’s view, around 100,000 tower sites would be required within the country in the next five years.
Umang Das, managing director, Spice Communications, said that the advantage for them in working with a tower management company is that they can avoid having to invest huge amounts in building new tower sites, thereby helping channelize capital into other profitable avenues.
Apparently, the project has already been initiated, with Tower Vision having delivered around 250 tower sites to Spice Communications already. It is believed that these tower sites will be shared with other mobile service providers, as part of the infrastructure sharing initiative.
Meanwhile, being the first company to lease-out Tower Vision’s services, Spice Communications stands to get choice of location with respect to the towers.