With a view to cutting costs ahead of the upcoming 2G spectrum auction, Uninor plans to restructure its telecom tower agreements, say news reports.
Uninor has tower management pacts with Viom Networks, Bharti Infratel, Reliance Infratel, Indus and GTL Infrastructure Limited. As part of the restructuring of its infrastructure agreements, Uninor plans to move its base stations from its nearly 6,000 tower sites in the four states where it has ceased operations to the nine regions where it is expanding its network.
Earlier, Uninor had scaled down its operations in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Orissa. Now, it plans to move its tower sites from these areas to its current area of operations covering Uttar Pradesh East, Gujarat, Mumbai, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Goa.
The company is in talks with tower operators for re-allocation of its tower sites. However, as per the network management pacts, Uninor will have to continue paying the contracted site infrastructure fees to its tower partners in the four states where it has stopped operations.
