Mumbai: US-based American Tower Corp. is set to acquire Xcel Telecom Pvt. Ltd in a deal worth at least Rs700 crore, ‘The Economic Times’ said on Monday, citing a person familiar with the transaction. Xcel, founded by former BPL Mobile chief executive Sandip Basu, provides shared telecom infrastructure and services for operators in India.

The newspaper said the deal would be announced shortly and would help American Tower gain a foothold in in the world’s fastest-growing telecom market.

A spokesperson for American Tower declined comment, while Xcel officials did not respond to an email query, the newspaper said. Both companies could not be immediately reached.

— Reuters

Competition can erode telcos’ profits: Kotak

New Delhi: New and existing telecom operators currently in pan-Indian expansion mode may see profitability taking a hit as competition intensifies, leading to high capital expenditure and network costs, according to a Kotak Securities Ltd report.

“We expect the high capex, network opex and subscriber acquisition costs to weigh heavily on the margins of telcos (telecom companies) expanding pan-India (such as Idea Cellular Ltd and Vodafone Essar Ltd), on alternative technology (such as Reliance Communications Ltd and Tata Telecommunications Ltd) or launching fresh operations,” the report said.

The firm said strategic interests of global telcos such as Vodafone Plc., and NTT DoCoMo Inc. and further entry through 2G/3G/WiMax/mobile virtual network operator routes may intensify competition and weed out extraordinary profits from the sector.

— PTI