Vodafone, which vowed to set up a charitable organization in India with an investment worth $10 million, is also eager to share infrastructure with its competitors instead of creating them on its own. The company claimed that since its entry into India, its capital expenditure had doubled. “We are now spending $2 billion a year. We plan to cover 90 per cent of the market from 50 per cent now by bundling affordable handsets to reach out to the masses, particularly in small towns and villages,” Sarin said while talking to reporters.

While Vodafone claimed that it did not have any immediate plans for any acquisitions or buying the telecom tower business of other companies. Instead, Vodafone is likely to share its infrastructure with other players in the industry so that companies need not put up their own towers everywhere. This move in turn would help Vodafone and other companies expand their network across India.

It may be mentioned here that Vodafone had agreed in February last to buy Hong Kong-based Hutchinson Telecom’s controlling state in its joint venture with the Essar Group. And now Vodafone Essar is in talks to share infrastructure, including mobile towers, with companies like Bharti Airtel, India’s largest private-sector mobile company.

According to reports, Vodafone Essar, Bharti and Idea Cellular are in talks to merge their tower businesses, but the Vodafone CEO said that the companies were yet to enter into a concrete agreement.

With India emerging as the world’s fastest growing mobile market and the market penetration rates still below 20%, operators like Reliance Communications are spending billions on expansion, especially in untapped rural areas. According to data available in August last, Vodafone Essar had 34.1 million mobile subscribers, while Reliance Communications had 34.8 million. The overall mobile market in India is estimated at over 200 million users.

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