adithya
Core Member
MUMBAI: Tower companies have started taking action against Reliance Communications for pending rentals, with most even reneging on service level agreements (SLA) that mandate them to maintain the towers for over 99.5% of the time.
Tower companies aren’t incurring any incremental cash expense to support the Rcom network, said several people close to developments. Some of them have decided to shut diesel supplies to the network and let the towers run on power grid and remain power less during power cuts.
They have even switched off towers where Rcom’s the only tenant, and serviced other technical issues only when something similar was needed for other tenants on the tower. Some are also taking legal recourse to recover their unpaid billed amounts.
“If we shut the tower, Rcom will not have a revenue source to pay us. But we refuse to incur any further expense which uses our cash,” said a person close to developments. “We have just shut a part of the network,” said another.
Anil Ambani’s flagship company Reliance Communications’ network runs partly on its own towers and partly on rented towers. Indus Towers, Bharti Infratel, American Tower Company and GTL Infrastructures are the main tower firms which rent tower space to Rcom. The telco is focusing on operating as a 4G-only operator, complemented by intra-circle roaming pacts with other telcos and spectrum sharing with Reliance Jio.
Rcom, which recently scrapped its merger deal with Aircel, is facing a slump in revenue, mounting losses, a shrinking subscriber base and debt of nearly Rs 47,000 crore. It owes GTL and its unit CNIL about Rs 95 crore, said one person. “The recovery proceedings being sub-judice, we would not like to comment,” said the company spokesman, but refused to validate the amount in question.
Reliance communications: Tower operators reducing service to Reliance Communications - The Economic Times
Tower companies aren’t incurring any incremental cash expense to support the Rcom network, said several people close to developments. Some of them have decided to shut diesel supplies to the network and let the towers run on power grid and remain power less during power cuts.
They have even switched off towers where Rcom’s the only tenant, and serviced other technical issues only when something similar was needed for other tenants on the tower. Some are also taking legal recourse to recover their unpaid billed amounts.
“If we shut the tower, Rcom will not have a revenue source to pay us. But we refuse to incur any further expense which uses our cash,” said a person close to developments. “We have just shut a part of the network,” said another.
Anil Ambani’s flagship company Reliance Communications’ network runs partly on its own towers and partly on rented towers. Indus Towers, Bharti Infratel, American Tower Company and GTL Infrastructures are the main tower firms which rent tower space to Rcom. The telco is focusing on operating as a 4G-only operator, complemented by intra-circle roaming pacts with other telcos and spectrum sharing with Reliance Jio.
Rcom, which recently scrapped its merger deal with Aircel, is facing a slump in revenue, mounting losses, a shrinking subscriber base and debt of nearly Rs 47,000 crore. It owes GTL and its unit CNIL about Rs 95 crore, said one person. “The recovery proceedings being sub-judice, we would not like to comment,” said the company spokesman, but refused to validate the amount in question.
Reliance communications: Tower operators reducing service to Reliance Communications - The Economic Times