Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel join hands for sharing telecom infrastructure

Bharti Airtel, has inked an infrastructure-sharing agreement with the telecom subsidiary of Reliance Industries.

The deal will allow the telecom unit, Reliance Jio, to access Bharti’s nationwide infrastructure while Bharti will have in return access to the optic fibre capacity established by Jio in future. As a result, RIL might be able to kick off telecom and broadband services in the near future by utilizing Bharti’s infrastructure, much earlier than if it had to create its own infrastructure. It has slashed Reliance Jio’s time to market by several years.
Airtel will also benefit from the deal as its cash flows will be boosted by lease rentals from Jio.
The deal is also extended to jointly laying optic fibre and starting other forms of infrastructure services.
This is the second infrastructure-sharing deal between the two companies. In April 2013, both had entered into an agreement under which Bharti has provided capacity on its i2i submarine cable to Reliance Jio.

Month: Current Affairs - December, 2013