The American Tower Corporation (ATC) is now ready to go full throttle in India. ATC is one of the largest telecom tower companies in the world, and believing in the power of consolidation, it is set to acquire an Indian tele-tower company.

The ATC entered India more than a year ago. Its CEO, James Taiclet saw great future in building and sharing towers, but with most mobile players creating their own tower companies, ATC is yet to get substantial orders.

So the company decides to change track and is now looking to acquire other independent tower companies in order to grow.

Sources tell NDTV that ATC has zeroed in on XCEL Telecom and is confident of sealing the deal soon, which could be worth $100-150 million.

“We are very close to buying an independent tower player and will be looking to acquire another by end of next year,” said Taiclet.

XCEL Telecom has about 1000 to 1200 towers and is funded by a US based investment fund called Q investments.

ATC, which recently lost the race to buy Tata Teleservices' tower arm, is also open to acquiring a stake in tower subsidiaries of major mobile companies.

“We will like to partner with wireless operators’ tower company but we prefer majority stake,” Taiclet said.

Meanwhile ATC feels that with competition in the tower space increasing, there is bound to be consolidation in this sector.

Hence, it’s waiting to gobble up tower players as and when there is any opportunity.