Active Telecom Infrastructure sharing so far has been restricted between Reliance Communications and Reliance Jio on the 800 spectrum band.
We believe Indian Telecom Operators in an attempt to bring down / maintain network costs are likely to exploit active infra sharing. So far they have been taking the loading route but with the massive capex deployments over the last 12 months, telcos are leveraging more than 70% of their 2G towers for the purpose of data already. This implies that to expand data coverage telcos may
have to sign up new towers purely for data and such a move will result in a sharp increase in network costs. A way out will be for telcos to pursue active sharing.
With spectrum sharing and trading already being allowed, active infra sharing will be helpful for telcos to continue to grow networks and at lower incremental opex. We believe that to begin with active infra sharing will be more incremental in nature and telcos may not consider a full rejig of existing networks to pursue active sharing.
