Telecom operator Aircel has signed 2G intra-circle roaming agreement with state-owned BSNL on pan-India basis.

“This is a first agreement between a state owned operator and a private telecom player. With this strategic tie up, both organisations will be able to enhance customer experience besides utilising each other’s assets and network strength,” Aircel said in a statement on Monday. The pact will lead to improved network connectivity as well as quality.

The agreement will help Aircel widen its reach as BSNL has about 1.14 lakh mobile towers across country. BSNL has second highest number of mobile towers in the country and also premium 900MHz spectrum that it is using for 2G services. With continued investment BSNL expects to have around 135,000 mobile towers, maximum owned by a company.

BSNL last week said it is gearing up to launch 4G services in 14 telecom circles where it has 20MHz liberalised broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum.

The company, which has already soft launched 4G services in Chandigarh, is exploring two methods – revenue sharing model and capex model – for the 4G rollout.

The company has 20MHz liberalised spectrum in 2500MHz band which allows it to rollout 4G services without any licensing hurdles.

A senior official said BSNL will be installing 4G base tower stations (BTS) in the existing GSM sites, which means there will be no additional expenditure on towers.

Regarding the device ecosystem for 2500 MHz band, the official said sufficient number of 4G handsets makers like Apple, Motorola, Lenovo, Google, and Nokia are already available in the market.