Indus Towers

Indus Towers is an independently managed company offering passive infrastructure services to all telecom operators and other wireless services providers such as broadband service providers. Incorporated in November 2007, Indus Towers Limited has been promoted under a joint venture between entities of Bharti Group including Bharti Infratel Limited 42% (rendering telecom and tower infrastructure services in India under the brand name Airtel & Bharti Infratel Limited respectively), Vodafone India 42% (rendering telecom services under the brand name Vodafone) and Aditya Birla Telecom 16% (rendering telecom services under the brand name Idea), to render passive infrastructure services to telecom service providers.

Indus Towers currently operate in 15 telecom service areas—Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Kerala, Rajasthan, Kolkata, UP East,UP West, West Bengal, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Mumbai,Punjab, Haryana, and Tamil Nadu. Company operate 1,21,330 towers in 15 circles across the country and have the widest coverage in India. Company achieved 2,75,499 tenancies in September 2016,

a first in the telecom tower industry globally.

Company product and service portfolio is designed around three core elements:

1. Tower: for mounting operator antennae at an appropriate height

2. Power: for providing uninterrupted energy supply to telecom equipment

3. Space: for housing telecom and power equipment

3/5 Calls in India made through Indus site. Company have pioneered the use of environmentally friendly alternatives for powering Telecom towers. More than 40,000 sites are green sites.

Indus Towers was incorporated with an objective to provide shared telecom infrastructure to telecom operators on a non-discriminatory basis.

Excellence in innovation and technology

Company has a dedicated technology team that looks after all technological touch points that exist in operations. It has five sub-functions—quality assurance, site planning solution, civil and tower, electrical and energy, and new solutions.

A mobile app for managing energy Around 10,000 of our field staff have internet ready smartphones. They receive real-time alarms about any issues at our sites through our mobile app. The app allows them to take a picture and act.The major issues dealt with through the app are related to energy management-fuel consumption, AC usage, etc. the technician responds to these alarms in a timely manner and conducts a site visit to ensure immediate rectification of the issue, avoiding further wastage of fuel or energy

Indus makes it to Harvard… twice!

Company unique business approach, continuous pursuit of excellence and transformational journey since company inception has been featured twice as a case study in Harvard Business Review–first in 2010 and then again in 2014. The first one, ‘Collaborating with competitors on infrastructure’, was about our infrastructuresharing approach, and the second one, ‘From infancy to maturity’, was about how our CEO has transformed Indus from a monopolistic start-up to a customer-centric market leader

Insourcing ideas: Indus Idea Incubator

The Indus Idea Incubator is an online platform of intranet, where employees can submit their ideas for improvement. These ideas can range from simple suggestions that impact a single telecom site to path breaking solutions that can transform the way company do business in any area–be it operational efficiency or employee satisfaction. The incubator is meant to channelize the creativity of our employees, and leverage it for taking our business to new heights. The submitted ideas are evaluated, and after they are approved, a project charter is created.

Managing our environmental footprint

With significant growth in telecom industry in the last five years, data usage has grown exponentially with the roll-out of faster next-generation data networks (3G/4G). indus towers are powered through either diesel generators or grid-sourced electricity. Indus Towers is 3rd largest in terms of diesel consumption after India railway and Indian army. The increase in the scale of our operations by virtue of growth in network demand is exerting tremendous pressure on overall energy requirements at the site even though the operator’s active equipment is now becoming more energy-efficient. company have been working towards providing green telecommunication solutions by reducing energy consumption and making our sites diesel-free.

Hudhud recovery

In October 2014, India’s east coast was struck by a power cyclone–Hudhud. Approximately 1,400 out of the 1,615 sites in the four affected districts in Andhra Pradesh suffered major blackouts. Mobile and Internet connections were down and there was heavy congestion in mobile traffic. A temporary warehouse with necessary infrastructure and a post-cyclone war room was established. Rescue teams cleared the debris and the energy team coordinated diesel logistics. Sites were jointly prioritised with customers and were made operational in 48 hours. Technicians and engineers manually carried material and fuel and worked closely with the police. As many as 200 ground staffers were added for faster restoration, and 100% fueling was done to ensure 24x7 service. The restoration activity continued for the next few weeks covering all sites across the four districts.

Awards and Recognitions

GSMA Green Mobile Award 2015:- Won this award for our Enabling Green Telecom project. We also won the same award in 2013 for our Green Sites project.

ET Telecom Awards 2014 Tower Operation centre (TOC): Excellence In Tower Management

13th Annual Greentech Safety Award 2014 Award in the Silver category for employee safety initiatives

Gallup 2014 Gallup Great Workplace Award

Golden Peacock Awards 2014

Golden Peacock National Training Award for the year 2014

Voice & Data 100 Awards 2014 Top Telecom Tower Company Award World Quality Congress Awards 2014 Award in the category of Best Business Process Excellence Programme

2014 Frost & Sullivan India ICT Award Telecom Passive Infrastructure Vendor of the Year

Global Green Future Leadership Awards 2014 Award in the category of Best Sustainable Investment for the ID-OD

Amity Telecom Awards Amity Green Company of the Year 2014

References

http://www.industowers.com/uploaded_files/pdf_files/sustainabilityreport2015.pdf