Quippo to invest $3 bn for boosting telecom infrastructure biz

SREI Group's Quippo Telecom Infrastructure Ltd (QTIL) on Monday said it plans to invest $3 billion in 2008-09 to ramp up its telecom infrastructure business. The company is planning to invest $3 billion to grow both organically and inorganically, QTIL Managing Director Arun Kapur told reporters. Besides, the company is also in talks with Tata Teleservices to buy its telecom tower business. "We are in an advanced stage of negotiation with Tata Teleservices and the deal is expected to be concluded by next month, he added. However, he declined to divulge the financial details of the proposed deal. Tata Telecom service provider is examining hiving off a part stake of its tower business portfolio. "Consolidation is the order of the day. This is a capital -intensive industry. In this scenario consolidation is going to be the name of the game," he added. Ruias-led Essar group is also understood to be in talks with Quippo for a possible merger of its telecom tower business arm Essar Telecom Infrastructure Pvt Ltd. However, Kapur declined to comment on the issue. Quippo has about 4,500 towers and plans to increase this to 10,000 by March 2009. The company also plans to venture into active infrastructure sharing. "We are in talks with all the new players who are receiving spectrum such as Datacom, Bycell, Shyam for active infrastructure sharing," he added. The government had recently allowed sharing of active infrastructure, which includes sharing of antenna, feeder cable, Node B, Radio Access Network and transmission system by telecom service providers, enabling them to cut costs in network roll-out and pass on the savings to consumers by way of cheaper tariffs.