Vodafone’s newly acquired Indian mobile unit, Vodafone Essar, has teamed up with two rival GSM carriers to set up a shared network infrastructure in the country.

Bharti Infratel and Idea Cellular have both agreed to set up an independent tower company with the Big V, providing passive infrastructure services in India to all operators in India.

The creation of Indus Towers follows an infrastructure sharing memorandum of understanding signed between Bharti and Vodafone in February.

The three companies will merge their existing passive infrastructure assets in 16 circles in India. Vodafone Essar and Bharti will own around 42 per cent each and Idea will own the remaining 16 per cent stake in Indus Towers.

The newly formed unit said the primary benefit of infrastructure sharing will be the accelerated expansion of coverage, especially into rural areas, enabling wider access to affordable services.

Operators will also enjoy capital and operating expenditure savings, enhanced operational efficiency and quicker expansion of coverage, Vodafone said.

Indus Towers will have approximately 70,000 cellular sites at launch.