Reliance Jio is the biggest mobile tower client for state-owned firms BSNL and MTNL, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad informed Parliament on Wednesday. "BSNL and MTNL have rented out 13,051 and 392 mobile tower sites respectively to private telecom service providers," of which Jio has rented 8,307 sites from BSNL and 137 from MTNL, as per the data shared by Prasad in the Lok Sabha.
BSNL has rented out 2,761 towers to Airtel, 892 to Vodafone, 941 to Idea Cellular and 127 to Sify, according to the data.
"Monthly rental charges claimed by BSNL varies from Rs 21,000 to Rs 38,700 and for MTNL from Rs 30,000 to Rs 1,50,000. Mostly private TSPs are paying rent on time. However, in case of any delay in payment, BSNL and MTNL regularly follow up the matter and take actions for early payment and to effect recoveries," Prasad said.
BSNL and MTNL are under pressure right now because of the lack of financial support from the government. There are several rumours stating the only option left is to close BSNL and MTNL, but DoT has constantly rubbished it saying that the revival plan for both the telcos is under works.
