Independent Tower Co in India

Vodafone Group Plc
08 December 2007


7 December 2007

  Vodafone, Bharti and Idea announce formation of Independent Tower Company in  
                                     India                                      

*  New independent tower company - Indus Towers - to propel the mobile
   sector towards achievement of the Indian Government's teledensity goals and
   broader rural coverage

*  Indus Towers to provide passive infrastructure services to all
   operators on a non-discriminatory basis

*  Indus Towers will enable optimisation of future tower rollout and
   enhanced operational efficiency leading to opex and capex savings for its
   customers

*  The Indian consumer will benefit through improved network reach and quality,
   more choice and significantly greater access to mobile services across
   the country

*  This is a major step towards achieving the Indian Government's vision and 
   TRAI's recommendations for passive infrastructure sharing and will create a
   lower cost and more competitive operating environment for mobile operators in
   India.

Vodafone Essar - a subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc, Bharti Infratel Limited and
Idea Cellular Limited today announce that they have agreed to form an 
independent tower company, Indus Towers Limited, to provide passive
infrastructure services in India to all operators on a non-discriminatory basis.
This follows the infrastructure sharing Memorandum of Understanding signed
between Bharti and Vodafone in February 2007.

The three companies will each merge their existing passive infrastructure assets
in 16 circles in India. Vodafone Essar and Bharti will own approximately 42%
each and Idea will own the remaining 16% stake in Indus Towers. New passive
infrastructure rollout in the 16 circles will be undertaken by Indus Towers.

This transaction highlights Vodafone Essar, Bharti and Idea's commitment to
enhancing the sharing of passive infrastructure and takes a firm step towards
delivering on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (TRAI) recommendations
on infrastructure sharing. The primary benefit will be the accelerated expansion
of coverage, especially into rural areas, and enables wider access to affordable
services for all, helping to meet the Indian Government's teledensity targets.
Indus Towers welcomes all operators to become customers. While these operators
will continue to run their active infrastructure completely independently, they
will be able to enjoy capital and operating expenditure savings, enhanced
operational efficiency and quicker expansion of coverage.

Indus Towers will be an independently managed and operated company, offering
services to all telecom operators and other wireless services providers such as
broadcasters and broadband services providers. Indus Towers will have
approximately 70,000 sites at inception providing it with significant scale
benefits, and will undertake a significant rollout of telecom infrastructure to
propel the mobile sector towards achieving India's teledensity and rural
coverage goals within the next few years.

The formation of Indus Towers will enable telecom operators to reduce operating
costs through economies of scale. The Indian consumer will be the ultimate
beneficiary of this initiative through improved network quality and broader
coverage especially in rural areas.

                                    - ends -                                    


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mentioned herein may be the trade marks of their respective owners.



Cautionary statement regarding forward - looking statements

This press release contains certain 'forward-looking statements' within the
meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 with respect to
our expectations and plans, strategy, management's objectives and future
performance, including statements relating to expected benefits associated with
the transactions contemplated herein. Forward-looking statements are sometimes,
but not always, identified by their use of a date in the future or such words as
'anticipates', 'aims', 'due', 'could', 'may', 'should', 'will', 'expects/
expected', 'believes', 'intends', 'plans', 'targets', 'goal' or 'estimates'.

By their nature, forward-looking statements are inherently predictive,
speculative and involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and
depend on circumstances that will occur in the future.

There are a number of factors that could cause actual results and developments
to differ materially from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking
statements. These factors include, but are not limited to: regulatory approvals
that may require acceptance of conditions with potential adverse impacts; risk
involving our ability to realise expected benefits associated with the
transactions referred to herein; and the continued growth in the market for
mobile services and general economic conditions in India.
 

For further information:

Vodafone Group
Investor Relations             Media Relations
Tel: [phone]       Tel: [phone]

 

Notes to Editors

About Vodafone
Vodafone is the world's leading international mobile communications group with
over 241 million proportionate customers as at 30 September. Vodafone currently
has equity interests in 25 countries across five continents and a further 39
partner networks worldwide. For more information, please visit www.vodafone.com

About Vodafone Essar
Vodafone Essar is the Indian subsidiary of the Vodafone Group and has operations
in 16 circles with 37.2 million customers. Vodafone has partnered with the Essar
Group as its principal joint venture partner for the Indian market. For further
information, please visit www.vodafone.in

About Bharti Infratel
Bharti Infratel, is a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel Limited, India's leading
integrated telecom services provider with an aggregate of 53 million customers
as of end of October 2007, consisting of over 50 million mobile customers.
Bharti Airtel has been rated among the best performing companies in the world in
the BusinessWeek IT 100 list 2007. For further information, please visit
www.bhartiairtel.in

About Idea
Idea has a customer base of over 20 million and covers approximately 60% of
India's telecom population in 11 circles. Idea also has licenses for Mumbai and
Bihar. It is part of the Aditya Birla Group. For further information, please
visit www.ideacellular.com

About the terms of the agreement
In the event that any party to the agreement establishing Indus Towers, fails to
contribute some or all of its tower assets in the 16 circles to the company, the
shareholding of the relevant shareholder will be reduced.

About passive infrastructure
Includes the towers, shelters, cooling systems, AC and DC power supply, diesel
generators, air conditioning, site leases and other electrical and civil works
in relation to a mobile telecommunications network that enables a mobile
communications operator to install the active infrastructure such as base
terminal station equipment, associated antennas and backhaul connectivity to a
mobile telecommunications operator's network at such telecommunications site.

About active infrastructure
Includes base terminal station equipment, associated antennae, backhaul
connectivity to a telecom licensee's network and other requisite equipment and
associated electrical and civil works required to provide telecom services by a
telecom licensee at a telecom site.

About 16 Circles
16 circles refer to the following 16 service licence areas in India: Andhra
Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, Maharashtra,
Mumbai, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Chennai, U.P. (East), U.P (West) and West
Bengal.

 



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