10th Dec 2007 07:00
Vodafone Group Plc08 December 2007 7 December 2007 Vodafone, Bharti and Idea announce formation of Independent Tower Company in India * New independent tower company - Indus Towers - to propel the mobile sector towards achievement of the Indian Government's teledensity goals and broader rural coverage * Indus Towers to provide passive infrastructure services to all operators on a non-discriminatory basis * Indus Towers will enable optimisation of future tower rollout and enhanced operational efficiency leading to opex and capex savings for its customers * The Indian consumer will benefit through improved network reach and quality, more choice and significantly greater access to mobile services across the country * This is a major step towards achieving the Indian Government's vision and TRAI's recommendations for passive infrastructure sharing and will create a lower cost and more competitive operating environment for mobile operators in India. Vodafone Essar - a subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc, Bharti Infratel Limited andIdea Cellular Limited today announce that they have agreed to form an independent tower company, Indus Towers Limited, to provide passiveinfrastructure services in India to all operators on a non-discriminatory basis.This follows the infrastructure sharing Memorandum of Understanding signedbetween Bharti and Vodafone in February 2007. The three companies will each merge their existing passive infrastructure assetsin 16 circles in India. Vodafone Essar and Bharti will own approximately 42%each and Idea will own the remaining 16% stake in Indus Towers. New passiveinfrastructure rollout in the 16 circles will be undertaken by Indus Towers. This transaction highlights Vodafone Essar, Bharti and Idea's commitment toenhancing the sharing of passive infrastructure and takes a firm step towardsdelivering on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) recommendationson infrastructure sharing. The primary benefit will be the accelerated expansionof coverage, especially into rural areas, and enables wider access to affordableservices for all, helping to meet the Indian Government's teledensity targets.Indus Towers welcomes all operators to become customers. While these operatorswill continue to run their active infrastructure completely independently, theywill be able to enjoy capital and operating expenditure savings, enhancedoperational efficiency and quicker expansion of coverage. Indus Towers will be an independently managed and operated company, offeringservices to all telecom operators and other wireless services providers such asbroadcasters and broadband services providers. Indus Towers will haveapproximately 70,000 sites at inception providing it with significant scalebenefits, and will undertake a significant rollout of telecom infrastructure topropel the mobile sector towards achieving India's teledensity and ruralcoverage goals within the next few years. The formation of Indus Towers will enable telecom operators to reduce operatingcosts through economies of scale. The Indian consumer will be the ultimatebeneficiary of this initiative through improved network quality and broadercoverage especially in rural areas. - ends - VODAFONE is a trade mark of the Vodafone Group. Other product and company namesmentioned herein may be the trade marks of their respective owners. Cautionary statement regarding forward - looking statements This press release contains certain "forward-looking statements" within themeaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 with respect toour expectations and plans, strategy, management's objectives and futureperformance, including statements relating to expected benefits associated withthe transactions contemplated herein. Forward-looking statements are sometimes,but not always, identified by their use of a date in the future or such words as"anticipates", "aims", "due", "could", "may", "should", "will", "expects/expected", "believes", "intends", "plans", "targets", "goal" or "estimates". By their nature, forward-looking statements are inherently predictive,speculative and involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events anddepend on circumstances that will occur in the future. There are a number of factors that could cause actual results and developmentsto differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-lookingstatements. These factors include, but are not limited to: regulatory approvalsthat may require acceptance of conditions with potential adverse impacts; riskinvolving our ability to realise expected benefits associated with thetransactions referred to herein; and the continued growth in the market formobile services and general economic conditions in India. For further information: Vodafone GroupInvestor Relations Media RelationsTel: +44 (0) 1635 664447 Tel: +44 (0) 1635 664444 Notes to Editors About VodafoneVodafone is the world's leading international mobile communications group withover 241 million proportionate customers as at 30 September. Vodafone currentlyhas equity interests in 25 countries across five continents and a further 39partner networks worldwide. For more information, please visit www.vodafone.com About Vodafone EssarVodafone Essar is the Indian subsidiary of the Vodafone Group and has operationsin 16 circles with 37.2 million customers. Vodafone has partnered with the EssarGroup as its principal joint venture partner for the Indian market. For furtherinformation, please visit www.vodafone.in About Bharti InfratelBharti Infratel, is a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited, India's leadingintegrated telecom services provider with an aggregate of 53 million customersas of end of October 2007, consisting of over 50 million mobile customers.Bharti Airtel has been rated among the best performing companies in the world inthe BusinessWeek IT 100 list 2007. For further information, please visitwww.bhartiairtel.in About IdeaIdea has a customer base of over 20 million and covers approximately 60% ofIndia's telecom population in 11 circles. Idea also has licenses for Mumbai andBihar. It is part of the Aditya Birla Group. For further information, pleasevisit www.ideacellular.com About the terms of the agreementIn the event that any party to the agreement establishing Indus Towers, fails tocontribute some or all of its tower assets in the 16 circles to the company, theshareholding of the relevant shareholder will be reduced. About passive infrastructureIncludes the towers, shelters, cooling systems, AC and DC power supply, dieselgenerators, air conditioning, site leases and other electrical and civil worksin relation to a mobile telecommunications network that enables a mobilecommunications operator to install the active infrastructure such as baseterminal station equipment, associated antennas and backhaul connectivity to amobile telecommunications operator's network at such telecommunications site. About active infrastructureIncludes base terminal station equipment, associated antennae, backhaulconnectivity to a telecom licensee's network and other requisite equipment andassociated electrical and civil works required to provide telecom services by atelecom licensee at a telecom site. About 16 Circles16 circles refer to the following 16 service licence areas in India: AndhraPradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, Maharashtra,Mumbai, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, U.P. (East), U.P (West) and WestBengal. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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