BWI: AIRCEL Signs a Landmark Tower Sharing Agreement with BSNL

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: AIRCEL
Thursday, October 01, 2009 03:08 PM IST (09:38 AM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest; Business: Advertising, PR & marketing, Business services, Information technology, Telecommunications; Technology
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AIRCEL Signs a Landmark Tower Sharing Agreement with BSNL


New Delhi, Delhi, India, Thursday, October 01, 2009 -- (Business Wire India) -- Aircel became the first operator to sign a passive infrastructure sharing agreement with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). Aircel, the fastest growing operator, which currently has approximately 32,000 base stations, will now have access to approximately 45,000 BSNL towers across all its circles.

A significant portion of BSNL's sites are electrified. Sharing these towers that cover 96% of all districts across the country will help Aircel expand its footprint and gain time to market.

Mr Gurdeep Singh, COO, Aircel, said, "This is a historic moment for the company. Aircel will now have access to strategically located sites across BSNL's 21 circles (excluding Mumbai & Delhi). Leveraging BSNL's passive infrastructure will help Aircel meet its aggressive network roll out plans in addition to reducing operational cost."

Mr Kuldeep Goyal, CMD, BSNL added, "We are happy to partner with Aircel. BSNL has a strong nationwide coverage and offers the best value proposition in the Indian telecom market. Our objective is to provide quality and reliable service and thereby increase our partner's confidence".

About Aircel

Aircel, a part of Maxis Communications Berhad, Malaysia, is India's fifth largest GSM mobile service provider with a subscriber base of over 24 million and is the fastest growing mobile operator in the country. It is the market leader in Tamil Nadu, Assam, North-East and Chennai. Aircel is now present in 18 Telecom Circles (Mumbai, Pune, Uttar Pradesh East, Uttar Pradesh West, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, Assam, Bihar, Chennai, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, North-East, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal) and with spectrum secured for all the remaining circles (a total of 23 circles in India), the company is on track to become a leading Pan-India Operator. For more information, please log on to www.aircel.com.

About BSNL

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. formed in October, 2000, is World's 7th largest Telecommunications Company providing comprehensive range of telecom services in India: Wireline, CDMA mobile, GSM Mobile, Internet, Broadband, Carrier service, MPLS-VPN, VSAT, VoIP services, IN Services etc. Presently it is one of the largest & leading public sector units in India. Today, BSNL has about 47.3 million line basic telephone capacity, 4 million WLL capacity, 48.11 Million GSM Capacity, more than 37382 fixed exchanges, 44966 BTS, 3140 Node B ( 3G BTS), 287 Satellite Stations, 480196 Rkm of OFC Cable, 63730 Rkm of Microwave Network connecting 602 Districts, 7330 cities/towns and 5.5 Lakhs villages. For more information, please log on to www.bsnl.co.in.


CONTACT DETAILS
Shalini Sethi, Head- Corporate Communications, Aircel Limited, +91 9711597229, shalini.sethi@aircel.co.in
Madhavi Kochar, 20:20 MEDIA, +91 9810788188, madhavi@2020india.com

KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, MARKETING, BUSINESS SERVICES, IT, TELECOMMUNICATIONS, TECHNOLOGY

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