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Highlights
- Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) in order to compete with the private telecom opertors in the country entered into a infrastructure sharing pact with BSNL.
- BSNL has been sharing its 4G and 5G towers with Vi, and now, the discussions between the two companies has gone deeper.
- In fact, BSNL has identified more areas wherein it can enter into a infra sharing agreement with Vodafone Idea.
Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks
Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL), the third-largest telecom operator in India, in order to compete with the private telecom opertors in the country entered into a infrastructure sharing pact with BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited). BSNL has been sharing its 4G and 5G towers with Vi, and now, the discussions between the two companies has gone deeper. In fact, BSNL has identified more areas wherein it can enter into a infra sharing agreement with Vodafone Idea. According to BSNL, AI, Cloud, edge infrastructure, data centers, and enterprise services are potential areas where it can collaborate with Vi. This was informed by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to the Parliamentary Committee on Communications and Information Technology.
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Vodafone Idea Needs Infrastructure from BSNL for Speedy Rollout
The more access Vodafone Idea gets from BSNL for its infrastructure, the better it is for the private telecom operator. Vi has been strugglin to rollout its own infrastructure due to cash flow issues. While the telecom operator has been raising funds for fueling capex (capital expenditure), the process has been delayed due to several reasons.
BSNL has identified 5G CNPN (captive non-public networks), smart infrastructure, IoT (internet-of-things), digital public services, content delivery, and digital platforms, e-commerce enablement, edge logistics, and more as potential areas for collaboration. The telecom department said that these areas have only been identified as a potential way forward, but no details have been finalised by the two companies yet.
What is interesting here is that BSNL is owned by the central government, which also owns the majority stake in Vodafone Idea. Thus, the collaboration between the two companies should happen seamlessly. BSNL has already been sharing its tower infrastructure with Vi. The private telco needs the infra access from BSNL to reach new areas faster so that it can add new users and compete with Airtel and Jio.
