Vodafone, Idea to exit towers business, ATC to acquire 20,000 towers

Mumbai Nov 15: In a move to exit the tower business telecom operators Idea and Vodafone have decided to sell there towers business to American Tower Corporation.ATC has announced the agreements to acquire 20,135 telecom towers held by Vodafone India and Idea Cellular for about Rs 7,850 crore ($1.2 billion).

This move would help the companies to exit the tower business as they found it not a viable option to hold these towers and would pave a way for faster merger of the entities.

Earlier both the companies have announced a merger so that they effectively counter the new operator JIo.

This deal is expected to be completed by mid-2018 and would increase the number of towers of ATC to 80,000. Bharathi Infratel ( a subsidiary of Airtel) has acquired Indus Towers, with 1,23,073 towers.Experts said that more companies are expected to exit the tower business and
would pave a way for consolidation.