UPDATE 1-India's Tata Tele sells tower unit stake to Quippo

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By Devidutta Tripathy

NEW DELHI, Jan 5 (Reuters) - India's Tata Teleservices has agreed to sell a 49 percent stake in its telecoms tower arm to another Indian tower firm, valuing the business at an enterprise value of 130 billion rupees ($2.7 billion).

In a bid to cut costs, Indian mobile operators are increasingly sharing base stations and tying up with independent operators as they expand across vast rural districts and penetrate smaller towns, where low income subscribers dominate.

In November, NTT DoCoMo (9437.T) agreed to buy a 26 percent in the unlisted Tata Teleservices.

Quippo Telecom Infrastructure Ltd, an unlisted firm in which India's SREI Infrastructure (SREI.BO) and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) own stakes, will pay Tata Tele 24 billion rupees and transfer 5,000 towers to the merged entity.

"This deal assumes a big significance for us ... and coming at a time when all new operators will need passive infrastructure," Anil Sardana, managing director of sixth-ranked mobile operator Tata Teleservices, said on Monday.

"3G and broadband wireless access auctions are round the corner. That will give a lot of opportunity," he said.

The merged tower company, Wireless-TT Info-Services, which will be managed by Quippo, will have 18,000 towers in total and ramp that up to 50,000 by 2010/11.