Union Cabinet gives nod to hiving off BSNL towers to a new company

Union Cabinet has approved hiving off Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) mobile towers into a new company.
Decision in this regard was taken in Union Cabinet meeting presided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.
This move will help state owned telecommunications giant to realign its structure in the highly competitive telecom sector in lines with private players. It will also help BSNL to unlock its tower assets and improve its financial position.
In this regard, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will constitute an inter-ministerial group to chalk out organizational structure and capital structure of the new company after carrying out market valuation of BSNL’s tower assets.
Presently, BSNL has about 64,500 mobile towers across the country and more than its 50,000 tower sites have optical fiber cable (OFC) connectivity.
It should be noted that, BSNL had started sharing its mobile towers with other service providers including private sector telecom companies from 2010, but it is yet to realize full potential of its market share.
Apart from this decision, Union Cabinet also gave in principle approval for the financial assistance of 627 crore rupees to MTNL and BSNL for surrendering 800 MHz telecom spectrum in some circles.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2015