indus Newsletter

Indus Towers Limited | Vol 1 | July 2012

IndusNews

Putting India First

COVER STORY

Green Telecomat IndusPage 4

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS

Kolkata, Mumbai and Punjab & Haryana

IN CSR

Living our Values

IN FOCUS

Building a Safe Work Environment

HIGHLIGHT | PHOTOS OF SOLAR TOWERS AND GREEN CITIES • ENVIRONMENT DAY • INDUS AWARDS

in this issue01 From Shantha’s Desk03 Putting India First

COVER STORY04 Green Telecom at Indus06 Indus Awards

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS07 LTE – A New Dawn in Kolkata07 Mumbai Struggle

NEW INITIATIVES09 Think For A Change: Fostering A Culture Of Innovation & Excellence 09 How Innovation Has Given Birth To ‘Green Genie’ in Chandigarh

CSR10 Living our Values

IN FOCUS12 Building a Safe Work Environment13 Indus in the News

Dear All,

It is my pleasure to share with you the first issue of Indus News – a newsletter

intended especially for you, our valued Customers. Our endeavor is to have a quar-

terly publication that brings you up to speed with all that is happening across Indus

Circles. At Indus, being ‘Customer Centric’ is one of our Core Values. We strongly

believe in delivering VALUE to YOU, the key stakeholders in our success. And in

order to make this happen consistently, we are continuously reinventing ourselves.

In this issue, our main focus is on Indus’ Green practices. We tell you about the

initiatives that we have undertaken to create ‘Green Cities’ in which NO telecom site

uses diesel, as well as the growing number of Green Sites that we are putting up

across India. Another Core Value of ours is the Environment, and we will keep you

updated about our ongoing efforts in every issue of Indus News.

2011-12 has been a tough year for the industry and even within this environment

we have achieved most of the goals that we set for ourselves. The uncertainty

witnessed in the last couple of months however, will test a lot of companies in the

telecom infrastructure space.

Indus will continue to put its best foot forward this year too. With your valuable

support, we have and will take telecom to the next revolution. As always, our tagline

of ‘Putting India First’ will shine through our endeavours to transform more and

more lives by enabling communication.

We hope you enjoy reading this first issue of Indus News, and look forward to hear-

ing your comments and feedback.

Warm regards,

B S SHANTHARAJUChief Executive OfficerIndus Towers Limited

From Shantha’s Desk

Putting India First

Putting India First

Introduction | Putting India First 3

For us, Putting India First is not just a tagline. It is at the very heart of what Indus stands for.

It reflects our focused effort to create infrastructure for the nation, resulting in growth that

carries India forward with it.

This also powerfully supports our vision to “Transform Lives by Enabling Communication”.

Indus has the largest telecom footprint across India and this, combined with the affordability

of our services, has propelled the wireless communication sector towards achieving the

Government of India’s tele-density goals.

Today, we are happy that Indus is the world’s largest telecom tower company with over

112,000 towers. But what makes us truly proud is that we have connected a billion lives and

transformed them beyond imagination. By facilitating national and regional integration;

bridging the rural-urban divide and creating an atmosphere of economic diversification and

employment, Indus has touched the lives of countless Indians and injected them with new

hope and opportunity.

By providing uninterrupted mobile connectivity even at remote locations, Indus has

enabled a fisherman on the high seas off Kerala to get the best price for his daily catch and

reduce wastage. Whether it is natural calamities like the floods in Andhra Pradesh and the

Sikkim earthquake or terrorist attacks in Mumbai, Indus Towers has stood tall relentlessly

connecting India’s people to a better future.

We are immensely proud of these compelling illustrations of our corporate strategy, that

link business objectives to a larger societal purpose. We are also privileged to provide an

opportunity for a greater part of the nation to participate in its infrastructure build out.

Join us in Putting India First.

Saving Costs: Saving the EnvironmentGreen Telecom at IndusAt Indus, our goal is to develop, run and enable an environmentally sustainable business which combines environmental and business benefits. Our leadership in ‘Green Practices’ is an important differentiator for operators who are prepared to invest in creating sustainability across their businesses. Under our nation-wide campaign i-CAP (Indus Carbon Abatement Program), we have reduced GHG emission in addition to offering a full range of alternate/ renewable energy solutions to power telecom towers.

Our environmental initiatives drive real business benefits by enabling operators and service providers to improve competitiveness, profitability and differentiation. These improvements are achieved through the Indus Green Value Chain that offers a green advantage.

Green Active EquipmentThere has been significant reduction in power consumption of active equipment from about 2.5kW to below 1kW per BTS. Also the newer BTSs are capable of working at much higher temperatures than the previous models. While this area is primarily driven by our esteemed customers, Indus facilitates such initiatives for its customers.

Green Passive Configurations & EquipmentIndus is investing to ensure that the passive infrastructure equipment is state- of-the-art with the highest possible energy efficiency. We are also working on maximizing the buildup of outdoor cell sites which eliminate the need for air conditioners on sites, hence reducing the energy cost by 20-25 %. Indus is also implementing retro fitment solutions like DC-DG, Free Cooling Unit, Soft Start Inverter, and Fuel Catalyst to reduce energy cost.

Green Active Equipment

Green Passive configurations & Equipment

Green Energy Sources

Green SIte Sharing

Indus Value Chain

As of now, Indus has one of the largest

portfolios of Green sites in its portfolio

amongst all telecom tower companies.

Cover Story

• UtilizationofNatural SolarPower

•OptimizationofFuel Consumption

•Elimination/Minimisation ofRun-HourofDiesel Generator

WorldEnvironmentDay,5th June 2012

As, the World Environment Day (WED) marked its 40th anniversary this year, IndusTowers initiated an inspirational green gesture, by “Gifting a Plant” to its Customers. A living breathing gift that lasts several decades and significantly benefits the planet. The plants were gifted in a unique, renewable, biodegradable pot, made from coir fibre - the outer husk of coconuts - which is the main waste product of coconut farms. This was further packed in a Jute Bag; a natural fibre which is 100% biodegradable.

The day reinforced our ongoingendeavour of supporting our green initiatives, and a commitment to continue to be socially responsible and deliver our services in an environmentally friendly manner.

Green SharingSharing of sites by multiple operators optimizes the energy cost significantly. Broadly speaking, 2/3 operators sharing brings down the energy cost by 20 to 30 percent for the respective operator. Indus believes that its portfolio with higher tenancies helps the environment significantly.

Green Energy SourcesIndus is focused on harnessing alternate/ renewable energy sources like Solar, Wind, Fuel Cell, Natural Gas, Biomass and Geothermal to power telecom towers. It has achieved significant progress in implementation of Solar Hybrid solution. More than 1000 sites have been already deployed.

Indus has also initiated trials on PNG (Pipe Natural Gas) and LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) based generators to substitute diesel as an energy source. As the industry leader, Indus is steadily progressing in promoting green power solutions. We believe that increase in scale will result in reduction in prices and spur exponential growth.

Packaginginreusablejutebagtohelppromotewasteminimizationactivitiesandboostenvironmentalawareness

SolarSIteofIndus

GreenTelecom: ChallengesandWayForward

The major financial challenges being faced for powering telecom towers through green sources are the higher initial investment and longer Return on Investment (ROI) periods. The technical and operational challenges include nascent telecom technologies for a lower load situation, non-predictable power situation and distributed telecom networks.

In order to sustain Green Telecom, there needs to be a holistic approach towards collaboration amongst industry players and government agencies. Incentives and tax benefits to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and services providers will also facilitate affordable green solutions.

CNGVehicles-Ahmedabad Cyclingtothesite-Chandigarh GreenCityDrive-Mumbai

IndusGreenCity

An Indus Towers telecom site uses various energy sources including Grid Electricity, Diesel Generator (DG), and Batteries, to power the equipment which requires year round 24X7, supply to support telecom services. DG and Batteries are used due to theunreliable electricity supply in India. Our operations run in 16 telecom circles of India and in certain geographies there is no electricity supply at all.

Indus strives for maximum utilization of Grid Power, to reduce the consumption from other sources. This project aims at ‘Going DG Free’ whereby the use of diesel is eliminated and instead other technology solutions aredeployed to support the network operations.

Indus has declared 6 major cities (Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Palanpur & Gandhinagar) ‘Green’ as they use NO diesel. Indus is the only organization to take the Green City step to ensure that no diesel would be consumed for cell site operations without compromising the network uptime.

Going forward, Indus envisages promoting the Green Concept for its sites as well, whereby Indus shall focus on making a site ‘diesel free’ and on increasing the number of Green Sites. As of June 2012, Indus had 12,000 Green Sites and we aim to up this number to 20,000 by the end of March 2013.

Airtel Partners Meet - Green Initiatives Award 2012Indus Towers has been recognized and awarded the Green Initiatives Award at the Airtel Partners Meet 2012.

Amity Telecom Awards - Green Company of the Year 2012This award recognizes Indus’ commitment towards continuous innovation and enhanced operational efficiencies resulting in cost savings for its customers.

CII National Awards - Excellence in Energy Management Award 2011Indus Towers has been awarded the 12th award under the category- “Innovative Energy Saving Product Services”. This award is primarily for Indus’ Free Cooling Units (FCU) to save energy.  

Global Mobile Awards 2012Out of 600 nominations filed from all over the world, only 158 were shortlisted including Indus. The project shortlisted, was Indus’ Carbon Abatement Program (i-CAP), which encompasses initiatives for reducing carbon emissions and saving natural resources.

Indus Awards

Voice & Data 100 Awards Green Company of the Year Award 2011The Green Company of the Year award was a special category award and the first for Indus under Green Initiative category.

KPMG-Qimpro–Award - Green Initiatives Award 2011Indus received the prestigious KPMG-Qimpro-Award 2011 for Green Initiatives.

6 Cover Story | Indus Green City

LTE is a bright feather in the Indus Towers – Airtel relationship. Never before has an operator and Indus Kolkata worked so closely for a sustained period on such a complex project with so much success.

The Kolkata team, in October’11 set about the challenging task of delivering sites in a very short time to ensure that Airtel successfully launched the first 4G network in India. 502 sites were integrated by 10th April – the launch date, thus achieving 100% of the target.

The war room which was set up to meet this challenge had a unique but effective composition comprising Single Point of Contact (SPOC) from all Partners, Airtel SPOC and from Indus representatives (more than 20 dedicated resources). The war room arrangement has brought forward a number of positives and can be a case study in efficient project management – on spot clearances, single version of truth (one MIS) and precision coordination among multiple stakeholders.

In line with our value of Customer Satisfaction, we took special measures to ensure that all things went smoothly on the launch date so that our customers could have a wonderful experience. A dedicated team and equipment were put on standby to ensure a perfect launch. The roll out, being the first of its kind, had unique challenges in terms of landlord issues, technological set ups etc. Indus Kolkata constantly came up with innovative solutions and fixes to resolve the same.

LTE – a new dawn in Kolkata

Regional Highlights | Kolkata 7

“Remove your tower from our premises” - Mumbai’s Struggle These words are increasingly heard at housing societies in Mumbai. With increasing frequency of articles in the print media, the threat of health hazards caused by telecom towers is spreading like wildfire across the city. It is not only getting difficult to maintain the existing towers, but building new towers is also becoming a challenge. Mumbai is home to many affluent and well informed landlords and has been one of the worst hit circles. With celebrities like Juhi Chawla and IIT professors like Girish Kumar advocating the ill effects of mobile towers, 2 out of every 5 towers which face a termination threat today due to the health hazard concerns.

Although educating and convincing the landlords about radiation does not come under the direct purview of responsibilities of a passive IP company like Indus, we have come a long way in handling this situation and have designed actions in conjunction with our values of “Excellence” and “Customer”.

CustomerSpeak

Airtel launched the first LTE network in India on 10th April

‘12. I am writing to express my appreciation for the efforts put in by you and your organisation, and also thank you for the partnership and enduring support.

Airtel has always been a front-runner in bringing the latest technologies and global competencies to India. This 4G launch is not only the first in India, but is at par with the world in 4G technology and is yet another ‘First’ that Airtel has delivered. Being worldwide front-runners in deploying new technology has its own challenges, and surmounting these challenges we faced in integration with the existing network would not have been possible without the hard work and passion that you and your team have displayed on ground.

JagbirSingh DirectorNetworks,Airtel

8 Regional Highlights | Mumbai

Although we have managed to save only 15% of the sites, we have ensured that no vacuum is created in our customer’s network.

At an industry level, Mumbai circle has been trying to collaborate with the other IPs to tackle this situation. In a recent meeting which was organized with the help of our partner Vodafone, senior management from all Operator companies and IP companies were invited to devise a strategy and an action plan which could be presented to the CM to get support from the administration.

Landlords have also been included in one such interactive session organized by one of the Operators. Mumbai circle has also been undertaking activities to save its sites from falling prey to termination.

We have published and distributed educational material for demystifying the myths related to RF exposure. We have organized presentations to address the concerns of over 100

societies. This includes live RF level measurements taken in the presence of all members. We have also uploaded a link on YouTube which has been viewed by more than 2000 people. http://www.youtube.com/wat ch?v=LVpse6da990&feature=plcp

As it is getting difficult to acquire new sites, we are providing the landlords a customized pre- installation RF level report prior to the start of work. This has also aided in sharing of sites where further addition of operators had led to EMF concerns (predicting the levels before & after the sharer tenant is installed). Trainings on RF exposure and how to handle the queries of concerned landlords has been carried out for over 150 Indus employees from Acquisition and Estate. In this training, the field teams from the customer fraternity also participated in large numbers. Once the team is equipped with the required tools and skills, it is possible to win the confidence of the landlords and retain the sites.

While Mumbai circle continues to mitigate these dangers, there is a need for the entire Operators lobby to step in and support Indus and act towards pacifying the media. “In this communication age, life comes to a standstill without the mobiles and without the mobile towers” is what we have to make people realize.

TheElectromagneticSpectrum

Alternating Electric &

Magnetic Fields

Appliances(Hairdryers/Televisions)

Static Electric & Magnetic

Fields

NoN-IoNIzING

z E R o F R E Q U E N C Y T o H I G H F R E Q U E N C Y

Infrared Visible Light Ultraviolet Light

X-Rays Nuclear

IoNIzING

z E R o F R E Q U E N C Y T o H I G H F R E Q U E N C Y

Radio Frequency,

Microwaves and Mobile Devices

CustomerSpeakIndus Mumbai team has been always ahead of other ISPs in taking EMF related challenges

to housing societies. Indus has proactively developed informative AVs, brochures etc. on EMF awareness. Thanks to Saurabh & Joydeep for leading from the front.

ShravastiBhattacharjee,CTO-Mumbai,Vodafone

How Innovation Has Given Birth To “Green Genie” in ChandigarhThe idea is beautiful: Chandigarh, a city that is known for its beauty, needed an innovative idea that would keep its skyline free of towering telecom towers. With an aim to work towards greener and cleaner cities, the Punjab & Haryana Circle teams ideated to create “Green Genie” with no tower structure, no diesel generator and no shelter. This was enabled by providing a simple lightweight hybrid pole structure to aesthetically house the active infrastructure and composite nodes to all electrical and communication equipment, on the roof tops of buildings.

We have already installed over 30 of these “Green Genie” structures across Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchkula. Indus Towers is playing a prominent role in proposing to replicate this in critical cities of Punjab and Haryana where putting up normal sites is a challenge. The adoption of “Green Genie” has ensured noise free operation of the site, zero emissions, vibration free operation, minimal space utilization, reduced construction time (under 72 hours) and reduced dismantling time (under 48 hours). This has enabled an improved network while maintaining the natural beauty of the city.

New Initiatives | Innovation 9

InnovationThink For A Change: Fostering A Culture For Innovation & ExcellenceConstant innovation is a hallmark of successful growth in a company. Sustainable growth implies an increased operational scale, with effective implementation of formal structures, processes and controls.

The Process Excellence team at Indus Towers is constantly geared to assess the role of innovation and excellence within the organization, by empowering employees, and optimising existing activities. It is our continuous endeavour to raise the bar of Excellence by creating replicable, automated and error free processes.

As we reflect on the past year, we have crossed several milestones, most notably in the area of Yellow and Green Belt initiatives, 100% organisation-wide business process mapping on ARIS and conducting PE Facilitation Programs across 16 circles. With these we are creating a culture of continuous improvement. Having embarked on this journey about a year ago, Indus Towers encourages the development of new ideas as a part of its risk-intensive process.

Through our online tool, the “Indus Idea Incubator”, we have generated over 1000 ideas. This tool persistently boosts the idea pool by nurturing and rewarding efforts in this direction.

Green Genie Sites

We focus our activities on our four core priorities of Corporate Responsibility:

Our BusinessIndus has a major role to play in providing continuous mobile telecommunication facilities to ordinary citizens. The uninterrupted connectivity of mobile phones has fostered social development, including improved education, health and increased citizen participation in civil society.

Corporate ResponsibilityIndus Towers’ commitment to act as a responsible member of the business community as an investor, employer and consumer is founded on a basic premise of our vision “Transforming Lives by Enabling Communication”. We believe that Corporate Responsibility means taking positive action, treating our stakeholders with respect, applying consistently high standards to everything we do and playing a constructive role in the communities in which we operate. It is our commitment and proud privilege to contribute to India‘s present and future growth.

Making commitments that matterA rising demand for energy and water, the vagaries of climate change, low price expectations of customers and our mandate for cleaner, greener delivery, all create a challenging environment. At Indus, we measure our performance not only in terms of what we do, but also how we do it. We see Corporate Responsibility (CR) as a business imperative. Our commitment to good governance, ethical conduct and social responsibility is intrinsic to our way of doing business, and strongly aligned with our drive to create and enhance value for all stakeholders.

It is our commitment and proud privilege to contribute to India‘s present and future growth

ScienceExpress:StudentsunderstandingdifferentconceptsinenvironmentintheJoyofScienceLabcoach

10 CSR | Living Our Values

Living our Values

Green CommitmentProtecting the environment is one of our core values and reflects our commitment to be socially responsible and deliver our services in an environmentally friendly manner. Sharing of sites by multiple operators has optimized the energy cost significantly. 2 to 3 operators sharing brings down the energy cost by 20 to 30% for the respective operator. Indus believes that its portfolio with higher tenancies helps the environment significantly.

Our WorkplaceIndus takes its responsibility to maintain a healthy work environment in full compliance with legal safety standards, beyond the prescribed Govt. of India norms. As a result, we have a corporate Environment, Safety and Health (ESH) policy that applies to all employees and operations across the country. Safe practices, healthy working conditions and the protection of our environment are key to achieving sustainable profitability and success.

Our CommunitiesOur company invests in associations and collaborations that focus on sustainable resources and community development; to benefit our customers, employees, and the environment in which we live & work.

TheScienceExpress:Bridgingthegapbetweenclassroomandpracticalexposure

LaBLprovidesenvironmentallyfriendly,affordablelighttotheruralhouseholds.

our PartnershipsIndus Towers has partnered with Vikram A Sarabhai Community Science Centre, Department of Science and Technology to support the Science Express – Biodiversity Special (SEBS) in order to educate the youth on various issues related to environment. We believe by supporting such a cause we are able to partner in this journey to create global environment ambassadors. The Science express for us represents the efforts that we have put forth towards environment education.

Indus Towers announced its 5-year partnership with

TERI to sponsor clean energy and rural entrepreneurship through the Lighting a Billion Lives Program (LaBL) that reaches over 165,000 people across 660 villages in India. LaBL is a unique and measurable sustainability initiative that effectively demonstrates how Public-Private- People (PPP) partnerships easily support clean energy schemes and initiatives, particularly in the area of rural development. In the process, Indus Towers will help mitigate approx. 5,000 tonnes of CO2 per year and create over 660 green jobs.

CSR | Living Our Values 11

Building a Safe Work Environment30th April 2012Indus Towers takes its responsibility to maintain an environment in full compliance with legal safety standards, very seriously. Safety and environment protection is an integral part of every job, process and decision involved at the workplace. With this objective to enhance Safety and internalize the criticality of ‘Safety’ in every sphere of our lives, Indus Towers organised a week long Safety Drive across the nation from 30th April to 7th May 2012.

The week-long celebration saw all our Employees and their Families, our Associates, Partners, OMEs and Technicians on site (even at remote locations) and most importantly our Customers; actively participating in Safety Week. The Safety Week celebration kicked off with five days of team competitions, mock safety drills, safety oath being pledged, safety theme poster competition, safe driving practices and employee health check-ups. One of the key highlights of the programme was distribution of Safety Booklets obtained from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways to schools adjoining our circle offices. We realize that in order to keep our roads safe and prevent loss of life, we must, “catch them young”. Further, to streamline the processes of Safety Drive, various functional teams were designated at Indus, who collaborated with professional safety experts to undertake, impart and instruct the employees on correct usage of safety gears. We put in place Emergency Response Teams in each of our offices across the country. Additionally, we launched 6-Life Saving Rules of Indus, handed out Home Safety Kits and leaflets to all our employees, their families, associates, partners, Total Service Providers (TSPs), Operation and Maintenance Engineers (OMEs), technicians and customers . We reached out to IBM, Wipro, PWC, E&Y, HR firms and all our partners who are critical in every phase of the business. The Safety Week has now become a nationwide movement for us. We plan to use this momentum for years to come and institutionalize our commitment to Safety by regularly organizing events and dedicating days to various aspects of Safety every month.

1.MockdrillsbeingperformedonSiteSafety2.HomeSafetyChecksatEmployee’sHome3.CycleRallyasapartofRoadSafetyAwareness4.CustomerSensitization-IdeaOffice

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OFFICE SAFETYHOME SAFETYROAD SAFETY SITE SAFETY

12 In Focus | Indus Safety Week

In Focus | Indus in the News 13

Sometimes Plan B doesn’t exist.Help us to work on Plan A and protect our earth.

Indus Towers LimitedBuilding No. 10, Tower A, 4th Floor, DLF Cyber City, Gurgaon 122 002, Haryana, IndiaFax : +91 124 4289333

Let’s give back to Mother Nature. Let’s switch to clean fuels.

At Indus, we have begun our humble contribution with our solar powered telecom towers and green business practices.*

We don’t just talk about it. We have created Green cities in which NO diesel is used. 6 cities, 12000 sites and counting.

Because we won’t breathe easy. Until you do.

*Indushasthehighestnumberofgreensitesamongstalltelecomcompanies.

we transform lives by enabling communication www.industowers.com

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ndus Green Sites across India

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