Aircel signs tower sharing deal with Datacom

NEW DELHI - Telecom major Aircel has signed a $400-million tower sharing agreement with Datacom Solutions, part of the Videocon group, the companies said Thursday.

According to the deal, Datacom, which holds a licence to roll out mobile telecom services but is yet to launch operations, can use at least 5,000 Aircel towers for 16 months.

Aircel, which currently owns around 15,000 towers across the country, will in turn create value by increasing tenancy and reducing costs across its towers.

“This is a landmark deal and unique opportunity for Datacom to go faster on its pan-India rollout,” said V.N. Dhoot, chairman and managing director of the Videocon group.

“Access to Aircel’s towers will help meet our aggressive rollout targets. We are also rolling out our own towers and for those towers, we would like to have other operators as tenants,” he added.