Shyam Sistema, a joint venture between India?s Shyam Telelinks and Russia?s Sistema, is on the verge of leasing out active and passive infrastructure from Reliance Telecom Infrastructure Ltd (RTIL), the telecom infrastructure arm of Reliance Communications (RCom). Early in April, Shyam Sistema has been allocated startup spectrum in three circles.
According to sources, Shyam Sistema is in the final stages of negotiation with RCom to lease towers as well as active CDMA infrastructure for a 10-year duration from RTIL. Shyam Sistema is believed to have benefited by getting infrastructure ready to roll-out mobile services in India.
It would also save the company as much as 6-8 months from the earlier targeted April 2009 launch. The Russian conglomerate owns a 51%-stake in the JV firm, which currently provides CDMA services in Rajasthan. Shyam Sistema officials could not be reached for comment.
Sources added, ?RTIL would get substantial incremental revenues by Shyam Sistema choosing to start services by leasing RCom?s infrastructure. At the same time, Shyam Sistema would also be able to offer seamless roaming to its subscribers.? This would be the first inter-operator roaming in the Indian CDMA space.
In 2007, RTIL, which plans to float an initial public offer (IPO), had diluted 5% equity shareholding, to a group of investors for $337.5 million. The deal pegs the equity valuation of the company at Rs 27,000 crore ($6.75 billion).