Reliance Jio Infocomm To Use 4,500 towers of Ascend Telecom, signs tower sharing deal

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. (RJIL), a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), has signed a telecom tower sharing agreement with Ascend Telecom Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. Under the agreement, RJIL will utilize the pan-India tower infrastructure of Ascend to launch its 4G services, ensuring a faster and more efficient rollout to its customers.

Ascend is one of the leading innovators in the wireless infrastructure space, and has a portfolio of more than 4,500 towers across India.

Reliance Jio Network/Tower Sharing Timeline :

· An agreement with Tower Vision for their 8,400 towers across India. (May 2014)

· An agreement with ATC India for their 11,000 towers across India. (April 2014)

· An agreement with Viom Networks for their 42,000 telecom towers. (March 2014)

· Agreement with Bharti Airtel for a comprehensive telecom infrastructure sharing agreement to share infrastructure created by both parties to avoid duplication of infrastructure wherever possible. (December 2013)

· A key agreement for international data connectivity with Bharti to utilise dedicated fiber pair of Bharti’s i2i submarine cable that connects India and Singapore. (April 2013)

· Agreements with Reliance Communications Limited for sharing of RCOM’s extensive inter-city and intra-city optic fiber infrastructure of nearly 1,20,000 fiber-pair kilometers of optic fiber and 500,000 fiber pair kilometers respectively and 45,000 towers. (April 2013 / August 2013 / April 2014).

The company has successfully deployed innovative and efficient solutions which reduce providers’ operating costs and carbon footprints. It is at the forefront of leveraging technology to manage infrastructure efficiently. Ascend is backed by New Silk Route Growth Capital, IL&FS and the TVS Group.