PTI

New Delhi: The companyis looking for acquisitions in the planning and professional services space. It had bought Malaysia-headquartered ADA Cellworks, UK-based Genesis Consultancy and US-based SCS for around $ 40 million.

GTL Infrastructure plans to invest $1.8 billion, through a mix of debt and equity, to increase the number of cell sites to 23,700 from around 6,360 now. It is reportedly interested in picking up majority stake in Essars tower arm.

Global Group is currently the third largest player in the network services and telecom infrastructure space in the world preceded by Altor Equity Partners owned Relacom and Providence Equity and Warburg Pincus-owned Telcordia. The group has now set its sight on becoming the number one player globally. That is why it needs to enhance its operations, sources said.

Picking up stake in Global Holding Corporation would be strategic for telecom players like ZTE, Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei since they intend to ramp up their operations in the Indian telecom sector which is witnessing tremendous growth and adding around 1.5 million cell phone users a month, they said.

The industry is changing shape with all incumbent operators trying to reach pan-India. At the same time, exiting CDMA players are moving towards launching the GSM services. Additionally, new players like Videocon, Swan, Unitech, Loop are awaiting to enter into the telecom business and have already secured licenses. Many more players are in the pipeline to offer 3G mobile services in the country.

These will open up further opportunity for passive infrastructure providers in the telecom space and network services players like GTL Ltd.