India's largest mobile operator Bharti Airtel and state-owned BSNL reportedly plan to sign a pan-India national roaming pact.
The operators intend to draw up an intra-circle 2G roaming deal with a focus on improving coverage in rural areas, Economic Timesreported.
The agreement will allow the operators to serve areas where they currently have a weak presence. Airtel's mobile network spans around 143,000 base stations covers around 87% of the population.
BSNL's network meanwhile reaches around 72% of the population. The operator is currently involved in a network expansion program, and aims aims to have around 110,000 base stations as of June this year, further expanding its population coverage.
The proposed roaming deal forms part of BSNL's strategy of controlling capex spending, while using sharing agreements to make careful use of infrastructure and improving operational costs. Co-operative competition with private rivals forms a key part of this strategy.
India's government last year committed around $6.6 billion towards turning around loss-making state-owned operators BSNL and MTNL.