GTL offers cheap power to cell sites

GTL, a network services provider, has forayed into energy outsourcing contracts and has bagged deals from Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and GTL Infrastructure (GIL) to manage their power requirements of over 8,000 cell sites. “Telecom service providers and tower companies are looking at outsourcing power management services to independent firms so as to enable themselves to concentrate on their core competencies. Even though energy management is a part of the bigger operational and maintenance (O&M) deals, it has a huge potential in the country,” GTL Director and Chief Operating Officer Charudutta Naik told Business Standard. Energy costs are high and at present companies spend around Rs 18,000-42,000 (differing from location and terrain) for powering a cell site per month. GTL intends to reduce the costs by at least 15 per cent, he added. Under the contracts, GTL intends to put to use an array of its recently-launched products that will help in reducing energy consumption, Naik said. The company, which has already bagged contracts from Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular and GTL Infrastructure (an independent tower company and a sister concern), is in talks with leading GSM and CDMA companies. It expects these contracts to rise on rollout of 3G services and entry of new players. He, however, did not disclose the financial details of the contracts that were bagged by the company. GTL is also experimenting on using of palm oil for cell sites. Many tower companies in the country are using bio-diesel, fish-fry oil and wind energy among others to power towers in the country. If successful, this would be the first time a company will be using palm oil to power cell sites and it would be a cheaper option compared to the existing methods of using electricity or diesel (for gensets).