Telecom tower firm Indus Towers on Monday said it plans to add nearly 5,000 telecom towers every year for the next five years and expects to be a over $2-billion company in the current fiscal.

Vodafone Essar and Bharti Group hold 42 per cent stake each in the company and Idea Group has the remaining 16 per cent stake. The company, which has operations in 16 out of the 22 telecom circles, currently owns more than 1.1 lakh towers.

Indus Towers also said that it was the first telecom tower company in the world to have achieved a portfolio of over two lakh tenancies within a few years of starting its operations.

Nearly 84 per cent of the telecom towers are being used by the joint venture companies of Indus Tower and about 16 per cent by the new telecom service providers.

Indus has reached 2,00,000 tenancies in less than 33 months and has an average tenancy rate which is fast approaching 2.0. In comparison Viom, the tower company jointly owned by Tata Group and Quippo, has 38,000 towers with a tenancy rate of 2.2

Mr B.S. Shantharaju, Chief Executive Officer, Indus Towers said, “Currently, there exists a huge opportunity for tower companies in servicing the needs of 3G and BWA along with addressing the needs of new operators which are going to deploy their networks. This effect would gradually transcend to smaller cities and rural areas.”

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