Brookfield Acquires ATC India's Assets

Brookfield has acquired 100% of American Tower Corp (ATC)'s Indian unit for $2.5-billion valuation as announced on January 4, 2024. ATC India is the one of the leading independent Passive Telecom Infrastructure Providers in India. The acquisition is expected to be completed by Q2 of 2024. 

ATC India started its journey in 2007 by erecting towers for mobile operators in Orissa and Bihar. After that ATC India continued its growth by acquisition of other companies - Xcel Telecom (May 2009), Transcend Infrastructure (November 2009), Essar Telecom Infrastructure (February 2010), Viom Networks (majority stake in April 2016; complete acquisition in April 2019), Vodafone Tower Holdings (April 2018) Idea Cellular Infrastructure Services Ltd (ICISL) (May 2018). 

India's Tower Companies Could Invest Rs 2 Trillion by 2025 for 5G Roll Out, Timeline of Tower Companies of India

There was a old post from 2017 - regarding the tower companies of India. However after Jio's entry with 4G in 2016 the scenario of Indian Telecom had changed a lot. As the mobile service providers saw ruthless merger and acquisition, the same came for tower space too. 

At present there are only handful of tower companies in India - top three companies are Summit Digitel, Indus Towers, American Tower Co. , just like the three pvt. telecom service providers - Jio, Airtel and Vi. Though in this space there are few smaller players survived - GTL, Aster.

As 5G is coming, the tower companies have found new zeal - by 2025 their investment could reach Rs 2 trillion to take care of 5G roll out. 

Jio Updates: Jio's Tower Arm Got New Branding under New Ownership

It is a late update #1 on Reliance Jio. 

Back in December 2019, Jio announced Canada-based Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP and its institutional partners (including Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC) would bought Jio's telecom assets through some complex deal. The valuation was Rs 25,215 cr. In September 2020 DoT cleared the transaction.

Summit Digitel Infrastructure, which is the new name of the tower arm of Jio Infratel under new ownership, currently has 1,51,000+ operational telecom sites. 

Website of Summit Digitel: https://www.summitdigitel.com/

Facebook page of Summit Digitel: https://www.facebook.com/SummitDigitel/ 

In March 2022, BSNL has inked a pact to use Summit's passive infrastructure assests, while in April Airtel did similar agreement with it. 

In December 2020, Summit Digitel joins Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA). 

TAIPA has members like: Indus Towers Limited, ATC Group Companies, Tower Vision, Ascend Telecom Infrastructure, Sterlite Technologies, Space World, Coslight, Suyog Telematics, Applied Solar Technologies, iBus Networks and Summit Digitel Infrastructure.

TAIPA did a makeover in September 2021, as Digital Infrastructure Providers Association (DIPA) (https://dipa.co.in/). The rebranding came in the time to reposition itself as the representative body for digital communication industry players while aligning with future industry requirements.

List of India's telecom tower companies - here.

The article is a part of tracking Reliance Jio.