Company Press Release:
RIL TO USHER IN A BROADBAND REVOLUTION IN
INDIA
Mumbai, June 11, 2010: Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) today announced
that it has entered into an agreement to acquire a substantial stake in Infotel
Broadband
Services (P) Ltd, which has emerged as a successful bidder in all the 22 circles
of the auction for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) Spectrum conducted by the DoT.
RIL will invest about Rs 4,800 crore by way of subscription to fresh equity
capital at par to be issued by Infotel Broadband. Post this investment, RIL will
own 95% of the
equity and Infotel Broadband will be a subsidiary of Reliance Industries
Limited.
RIL sees the broadband opportunity as a new frontier of knowledge economy in
which it can take a leadership position and provide India with an opportunity to
be in
the forefront among the countries providing world-class 4G network and services.
A single 20 MHz TDD spectrum when used with LTE (Long Term Evolution) has the
potential of providing greater capacity when compared to existing communication
infrastructure in the country.
India has witnessed substantial growth in the mobile subscriber base over the
last decade. This provides a ready platform for offering various data services
which is
currently at a very nascent stage. Diverse data services and rich contents have
significantly boosted data traffic in developed and other emerging markets. Data
communication volume per user has been growing exponentially in the last few
years, with the spread of advanced services, and a richer line-up of contents.
RIL’s initiative will usher in a wireless broadband revolution in both, the
urban and the rural areas all across the country by providing end-to-end data
solutions for
business enterprises, social organizations, educational and healthcare
institutions and Indian consumers. This will give a fillip to rural upliftment
by seamlessly
connecting information and markets to the rural population on a real-time basis
and will help bridge the rural-urban divide in terms of access to knowledge and
information.
RIL plans to create world class state- of-the-art technology using an asset
light strategy. RIL will forge several strategic relations with a host of
leading global
technology players, service providers, infrastructure providers, application
developers, device manufacturers and others to leapfrog India to the 4G
revolution.
RIL will comply with the non-compete and trademark agreements entered into at
the time of corporate demerger and subsequent modifications made last month.
Commenting on the initiative, Mr. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director
of Reliance Industries Limited said “We see this as the next wave of value
creation
opportunity in the wireless broadband space. We believe this will pole-vault
India’s economy into the digital world at an accelerated pace while creating
next generation
tools that will enhance productivity and create world-class consumer
experiences.”
About Reliance Industries Limited
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is India’s
largest private sector company on all major financial parameters with a turnover
of Rs. 2,00,400 crore (US$ 44.6 billion), cash profit of Rs. 27,933 crore (US$
6.2 billion), net profit of Rs. 16,236 crore (US$ 3.6 billion) and net worth of
Rs. 1,37,171 crore (US$ 30.6 billion) as of March 31, 2010.
RIL is the first private sector company from India to feature in the Fortune
Global 500 list of 'World's Largest Corporations' and ranks 117th amongst the
world's Top 200 companies in terms of profits. RIL ranks 75th in the Financial
Times FT Global 500 list of the world's largest companies. RIL is rated as the
15th ‘Most Innovative Company' in the World in a survey conducted by the US
financial publication- Business Week in collaboration with the Boston Consulting
Group.