Around two months back, Union Minister for Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran, unveiled "Project Most," under which telecom operators got together to look at ways to share their infrastructure.
The project, aimed at lowering the cost of infrastructure, will enable operators to reduce tariffs, which in turn will result in improved quality of service, and help reach urban as also the remotest areas of the country through network sharing.
Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel are in similar such talks that are reportedly now in advanced stage. The alliance, when formed, will enable the two operators to share about 2,000 cell sites across the country, resulting in cutting-down of the cost of infrastructure, and provision of affordable services to customers.
Presently, there are 70,000 cell sites in the country, out of which more than 20,000 belong to Reliance Communications. Whereas, Bharti Airtel has over 25,000 cell sites, and is planning to increase the number by more than double by end of this financial year.
However, there is no comment from either company regarding the alliance. Also, there are reports indicating that Reliance Communications is in talks with Hutchison-Essar and Idea Cellular for a similar sharing alliance.