Within 24 hours of  Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani hinting at the  at the possibility of partnership India’s leading telco Bharti Airtel, the two companies announced a comprehensive telecom infrastructure sharing arrangement.
 
Under the agreement both companies will utilise each other’s infrastructure i.e. optic fibre, submarine cable networks, towers and internet broadband services
 
“The cooperation is aimed at avoiding duplication of infrastructure, wherever possible, and to preserve capital and the environment. This will also provide redundancy in order to ensure seamless services to customers of the respective parties”, the two companies said in a joint statement.
 
It said that the arrangement could, in future, be extended to Roaming on 2G, 3G and 4G, and any other mutually benefiting areas relating to telecommunication, including but not limited to jointly laying optic fibre or other forms of infrastructure services. The pricing would be at ‘arm’s length’, based on the prevailing market rates.
 
As part of this arrangement, Bharti and Reliance Jio have already announced an agreement under which Bharti has provided capacity on its i2i submarine cable to Reliance Jio.