Bharti Airtel holds 47.95% stake in Indus Towers following the transaction
Indian carrier Bharti Airtel has increased its direct stake in compatriot company Indus Towers by acquiring 23.01% of shares held by its wholly-owned subsidiary, Nettle Infrastructure.
Folowing this transaction, Bharti Airtel now holds 47.95% stake in Indus Towers.
The telecom operator earlier directly held a 24.94% stake, plus 23.01% through Nettle Infrastructure.
Indus Towers offers passive infrastructure services to telecom operators and other wireless services providers such as broadband service providers. The company has over 189,000 towers and 339,435 co-locations and a nationwide presence covering all 22 telecom circles.
The carrier is accelerating the deployment of 5G infrastructure across the Asian nation. According to local press report, Airtel’s 5G is already present in over 67 cities in India.
In October 2022, Bharti Airtel launched 5G services in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi.
The carrier aims to launch 5G in the city of Kolkata in the near future, according to local press reports.
Airtel noted that its 5G Plus services will be available to customers in a phased manner as the company continues to construct its network across the country.
Airtel’s 5G offering has been deployed in a number of airports, including the Kempegowda International airport of Bengaluru, Lohegaon airport in Pune, Lal Bahadur Shastri International airport in Varanasi, Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport in Nagpur and Patna airport.
Bharti Airtel founder and chairman Sunil Mittal said that most parts of the country will be covered by 5G by March 2023.
The Indian operator is currently using equipment from Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung to provide 5G services. The Indian operator had secured a total of 19,800 megahertz of spectrum in the 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, 3.3 GHz and 26 GHz bands in a recent auction carried out by the Indian government.
Rival operator Reliance Jio Infocomm recently said its 5G service is already active in 225 cities across India.
Jio is offering the 5G connectivity on an invitational basis, with users living in 5G-enabled cities who have 5G compatible smartphones receiving invitations.
The telco had initially announced the launch of the beta trial of its 5G services in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Varanasi in October. Jio is offering 5G through a Standalone network architecture.
Last year, Reliance Jio Infocomm announced 5G contracts with Nordic vendors Ericsson and Nokia. The deal with Ericsson marked the first partnership between Jio and Ericsson for Radio Access Network deployment in the country.
Reliance Jio had previously secured a mix of wireless spectrum for 5G across 700 MHz, 3.5 GHz, and 26 GHz bands. Jio is the only operator with the 700 MHz low-band spectrum.
