Telcos forced to hive off assets, share network to bear costs of fiberisation: Crisil

Rating agency CRISIL said that telcos will be forced to hive off assets, share networks, or diversify so that they can meet the financial needs for fiberisation and be ready for 5G despite tightened purse strings.

“India is set to witness some tectonic shifts in the fiberisation landscape and the birth of new business models among telcos and tower companies around the launch of 5G,” said Hetal Gandhi- director and Rounak Agarwal – senior research analyst at CRISIL Research.

The rating agency in its report on Monday said that the telcos saddled under a debt of Rs 4.3 lakh crore as of March 2019 will need investments of up to Rs one lakh crore only in laying fibre networks over the next 2-3 years.