Reliance Communications plans to set up and install an additional 15,000 base transceiver stations (BTSs) in the country at an investment of Rs.15,000 crore. The proposed BTSs is likely to be completed by August 2007 and will be the fastest telecom infrastructure rollout in the country.

Reliance Communications, formerly Reliance Infocomm has over 15,000 towers across the country and the costs of setting up a tower varies. Ground-based towers cost up to Rs.1 crore, depending on the site and terrain. However, rooftop towers can cost only Rs.50,000, besides variable costs such as rent, fuel for generators, air-conditioning and maintenance.

With the completion of the BTSs, the company will have a total of 30,000 BTSs across all its circles in the country. The installation of towers is under the company’s plans to expand both its CDMA and GSM services. The company formally had an installed base of over 4,000 BTSs during 2001-2004, which was later increased to 5,000 BTSs by 2005. Currently, the company has over 30 million subscribers under both its CDMA and GSM operations and has a presence in 22 circles across the country.

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Reliance Communications plans $2.5 billion expansion (3-Feb-07)