‘Tower firms face big hit if Vodafone Idea folds up’

About 1.8 lakh tenancies may be lost

Vodafone Idea’s financial troubles have wide-ranging implications for the telecom industry with the mobile tower sector faced with the prospect of substantial tenancy losses if the beleaguered operator is forced to shut down operations, ratings agency ICRA warned in a note on Monday. “VIL has been under financial stress as reflected by mounting losses and burgeoning debt levels, which is likely to impact its financial lenders as well as Government, apart from having a bearing on its employees, its subscribers and associated industries, most prominently towers,” ICRA said. It added that in case of a VIL exit, tower firms might see about 1,80,000 tenancies falling vacant. Of these, only 40-50% were expected to be regained by the tower companies as tenancies over a period of 18-24 months, the agency said. There are about 5.5 lakh towers and each tower can have multiple tenancies.