Bharti Airtel and BSNL to sign a pan-India 2G intra-circle roaming agreement

Bharti Airtel and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) are likely to sign a pan-India 2G intra-circle roaming (ICR) agreement. The arrangement will strengthen the 2G mobile services of both the operators in the areas where either of them has a weak or negligible presence.

According to BSNL, the deal will be part of the company?s strategy to invest in building infrastructure and to use the existing spectrum sharing guidelines to reduce its operational cost while improving its network services.

So far, BSNL has invested about Rs 40 billion in the Phase VII of its network expansion plan. It is expected to be completed by end-June 2015. After completion of Phase VII, the company will have about 110,000 base stations in the country.