Reliance Communications subsidiary, Reliance Infratel and new entrant in the Indian mobile services landscape, S Tel today forged and end-to-end telecom infrastructure agreement comprising telecom towers, transmission for BTS sites and fibre backbone for intercity connectivity.

The agreement spans over six circles including Orissa, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, North East, Assam and J&K and gives S Tel access to over 10,000 towers of Reliance Infratel in the region.

 Mr. Shamik Das, Chief Executive Officer of S Tel said, “This significant development is part of our overall commitment to provide customers with excellent quality of service and a wide geographical coverage at the time of launch.  It is well-established that improving teledensity provides more economic benefit than any other kind of infrastructure.  This move will enhance the mobile penetration in these circles and rapidly bring benefits of technology and communication networks to people in these regions.  As a new entrant in a dynamic market, this alliance provides us with key, strategic advantages that will ensure speed to market and cost-effective roll-out of services. We are pleased to partner with Reliance Communications and Reliance Infratel, which have an extensive capability as an integrated service provider across the telecom infrastructure value chain.”

 “We are pleased to partner with S Tel through this win-win landmark agreement. This agreement reiterates Reliance Communications capabilities to enable the operators to go-to-market with a bouquet of telecom infrastructure services. This will ensure a faster rollout, optimum costs and a time to market advantage,” said Mr. Inder Bajaj, President, Reliance Infratel.

Last month, Reliance Infratel had entered into a similar infrastructure agreement with Etisalat in a deal valued at $2.2 billion. The valuation of the tower company is expected to rise further as it now enjoys a healthy tenancy ratio.