Reliance Industries is gearing up to launch its fourth generation telecom services from Navi Mumbai, with the company seeking permissions to install towers across the satellite city.

Senior Reliance Industries executives have already met officials of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation seeking permission for the towers. The company intends to start rolling out the services from Vashi, near Mumbai, according to sources close to the development.

A senior official of the NMMC said the company proposes to install high-mast towers, which will serve the dual purpose of a base station for the cellular network and provide street lighting. In the first phase, 126 such towers would be installed.

“These towers would be installed according to the company’s requirement. If a site has an existing NMMC street pole, then that pole would be removed and a new high-mast tower would be installed,” the official said.

High-mast towers are usually installed in areas such as factories, airports and large public areas, which require bigger areas to be illuminated. Such towers are about 100 ft tall, while the regular municipal pole is about 30 feet high.

Incidentally, Reliance Industries (RIL) has its corporate office in Navi Mumbai. The company, controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, is slated to launch 4G operations this year through its subsidiary Infotel Broadband Services.

An RIL spokesman, when contacted, declined to comment. Infotel Broadband plans to set up towers (fabricated structures made mainly of steel) that would support its 4G equipment (base transceiver stations). RIL is in talks with the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai for setting up about 8,000 4G towers.

>rajesh.kurup@thehindu.co.in

>rahul.wadke@thehindu.co.in

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