(a) whether the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) proposes to formulate any scheme to hire
and maintain cellular towers for its mobile telephony operations in the country;
(b) if so, whether the BSNL has now decided to outsource hiring and maintenance of such
towers from independent third-party vendors in the country; and
(c) if so, the details thereof?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI JYOTIRADITYA M. SCINDIA)
(a) & (b) Yes, Sir. BSNL has already formulated a scheme to hire cellular towers for its
mobile telephony operations in the country. However, maintenance of hired cellular towers is
being done by the owner itself.
(c) So fas, BSNL has signed the agreement for hiring of cell towers from one telecom service
provider (M/s Tata Teleservices Ltd.) and six independent infrastructure providers viz. M/s GTL
Infrastructure Ltd., M/s Aster Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd., M/s Quipo Telecom Infrastructure Pvt.
Ltd., M/s Essar Telecom Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. M/s TVS Interconnect System Ltd., and M/s XCEL
Telecom Pvt. Ltd.