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BSNL to lease towers to mobile firm Datacom

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CIOL Bureau
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BANGALORE, INDIA: Indian state-run telecoms firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) said on Thursday it has agreed to lease its network towers to mobile operator Datacom Solutions, as telecom firms look to save on infrastructure costs.

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Financial details and tenure of the deal with Datacom, which is yet to start operations in India, were not disclosed.

Datacom is the third mobile operator that BSNL has agreed to share its infrastructure with since September.

Earlier this month, BSNL signed a 10-year pact with Aircel, India's seventh-ranked mobile operator, to lease its around 45,000 mobile towers across the country. Tata Teleservices, the sixth-ranked mobile firm in which Japan's NTT DoCoMo owns a 26 percent stake, was the first such firm to sign a 15-year tower-lease pact with BSNL last month.

Telecom companies in India are looking to save on costs by sourcing infrastructure including mobile masts from peers and independent tower companies as they expand to smaller towns and rural areas of the world's fastest-growing mobile phone market.

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