Bharti eager to lease towers for Reliance Jio’s 4G rollout

Bharti Infratel, the tower arm of India's leading telecom company Bharti Airtel, today publicly declared that it wants to be part of Reliance Industries Ltd's rapidly growing telecom interests by leasing its towers to facilitate RIL's 4G services.

''We would definitely be in talks with them. We would like to do more and more business with them … they are a very credible customer, so we would definitely be in touch with them,'' Bharti Infratel vice chairman and managing director Akhil Gupta told reporters in New Delhi.

The established telecom major and the rising aspirant are already in sync; last week Bharti and Reliance Jio Infocomm inked a deal under which Reliance Jio will tap into Bharti Airtel's undersea cable network to help launch 4G services in the country and outside.

Reliance Jio will use Bharti's submarine cable network to provide data connectivity across the Asia-Pacific region.

After announcing the cable deal, a joint statement had said that Bharti and Reliance Jio would continue to build on this ''strategic framework'' and consider other mutual areas of cooperation and development.

Gupta, however, clarified today that no contract is being signed at the moment.

''As a tower company, it's my job to go to every operator, existing as well as prospective,'' he said.

Despite the political and regulatory turmoil in the telecom sector, Gupta said Bharti Infratel expects faster network rollout in India by mobile carriers this fiscal year.