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Tag: Reliance Jio

  • RCom sells Rs 3000 cr fibre assets to Jio

    RCom sells Rs 3000 cr fibre assets to Jio

    MUMBAI: Reliance Communications has completed the sale of its fibre assets worth Rs 3000 crore to Reliance Jio Infocomm on Monday. After the completion of the fibre monetisation transaction, 178,000 kilometres of fibre stand transferred to Reliance Jio, RCom said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

    RCom had last week completed the sale of its media convergence nodes(http://www.indiantelevision.com/iworld/telecom/rcom-sells-assets-worth-rs-2000-crore-to-reliance-jio-180823) and related infrastructure assets worth Rs 2,000 crore to Reliance Jio. The company said 248 MCNs covering about 5 million square feet of area used for hosting the telecom infrastructure were transferred to Reliance Jio.

    In December 2017, as part of its debt resolution plan, RCom had struck a Rs 25,000-crore deal with the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio for the sale of its assets mortgaged with different banks, to avoid insolvency proceedings. RCom’s assets are expected to contribute significantly to the large-scale roll out of wireless and fiber-to-home and enterprise services by Reliance Jio.

    The debt-laden company expects to raise about Rs 18,000 crore by selling the wireless assets to Jio and real estate assets to Canada’s Brookfield. The company also said that it would sell an additional 65 MHz spectrum in the 800 MHz band to Jio for Rs 3,500-3,700 crore. Last year, the company shut down its wireless services.

  • RCom sells assets worth Rs 2000 crore to Reliance Jio

    RCom sells assets worth Rs 2000 crore to Reliance Jio

    MUMBAI: Reliance Communications has completed the sale of its media convergence nodes (MCNs) and related infrastructure assets worth RS 2000 crore to Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio). The received amount will be the first tranche of payment in the Anil Ambani-owned operator’s asset sale which is sinking in debt of Rs 46,000 crore.

    Following the completion of MCN monetisation transaction, 248 MCNs covering 5 million sq ft of area used for hosting the telecom infrastructure were transferred to Jio. During early trade, shares of RCom were up by 1.97 per cent at Rs 19.14 on BSE.

    The debt-laden company expects to raise about Rs 18,000 crore by selling the wireless assets to Jio and real estate assets to Canada’s Brookfield. The company also said that it would sell an additional 65 MHz spectrum in the 800 MHz band to Jio for Rs 3,500-3,700 crore. Last year, the company shut down its wireless services.

    Back in May, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) cleared the proposals for the sale of assets of Reliance Communications Ltd to Jio.

  • Apex Court permits Reliance Communication to sell its assets to Reliance Jio

    Apex Court permits Reliance Communication to sell its assets to Reliance Jio

    MUMBAI: The Apex court had recently permitted Reliance Communications Ltd to sell its assets to Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.  On Friday, the Supreme Court cleared a settlement between RCom and the Indian unit of Swedish telecom equipment maker Ericsson AB, making it easier for the sale of the telecom operator’s assets.

    According to a report on Mint, the judgement regarding the sale of assets was delivered by a two-judge bench headed by justice R.F. Nariman. The bench directed Reliance Communications to pay Rs 550 crore to Ericsson by 1 October and asked RCom chairman Anil Ambani to give an undertaking to this effect. On 1 October, the apex court will also hear RCom’s plea to close the insolvency case. Bloomberg reports that Ericsson has objected to the settlement terms of the insolvency case.

    The report further notes that that the sale of RCom’s assets will reduce the lenders’ exposure by 50 per cent and it owes about Rs 42,000 crore to its lenders. As part of the deal, Reliance Jio will get 122.4 MHz of 4G spectrum in the 800/900/1800/2100 MHz bands. It will also get 43,000 towers and 1,78,000 RKM (route km) of fiber and 248 media convergence nodes that will cover five million square feet.

    Earlier in 2014, Ericsson had signed a seven-year deal with RCom to operate and manage its nationwide telecom network. The Indian unit Swedish telecom operator has stated that it has not been paid over Rs 1,000 crore. Earlier It has claimed outstanding dues of Rs 16,000 crore but settled for Rs 550 crore. The sale of Reliance Communications’ telecom assets to Reliance Jio is pegged at Rs 25,000 crore and the sale is expected to complete within the next three weeks.

    At the end of the deal, Reliance Jio will get more telecom assets to expand its wired and wireless business in the country. It will mainly help with Jio’s impending commercial availability of Reliance Jio GigaFiber service.

  • Q1 earnings could make Reliance Jio second largest telco by RMS

    Q1 earnings could make Reliance Jio second largest telco by RMS

    MUMBAI: In the 1st quarter of FY 2018, Reliance Jio’s operating revenue increased 14.6 per cent quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q). On the back of its strong earnings number, the telco operator could emerge as the second-largest telco by revenue market share (RMS) in the April-June quarter displacing Vodafone India which is in the final stages of merging with Kumar Mangalam Birla-led Idea Cellular.

    As per brokerage CLSA’s estimation Jio’s RMS would have increased by 3 percentage points to 23 per cent in the April-June period, following the positive surprise on the average revenue per user (ARPU) front that was 13 per cent ahead of its estimates, according to a report from Economic Times.

    Amid the tarrif war started by Jio, both Vodafone and Idea Jio added 28.7 subscribers Q1 2019  are losing ground in the telecom market. The speedy closure of the merger would help the combined entity as it will emerge as the country’s largest telco with the highest RMS of 37 per cent. However, as Jio is unlikely to raise tarrif soon, analysts expect the bad financial phase of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Idea merged entity to continue.

    “Jio is in no mood to raise tariffs anytime soon as it’s adding 9-10 million subscribers per month, delivering strong minutes, data traffic and revenue growth, which is bad news for Bharti Airtel and the (emerging) Vodafone-Idea combined entity, who need to offer some resistance by raising large sums of capital to accelerate 4G network build and also start matching Jio on tariffs,” JM Financial said in a note to clients as mentioned by ET.

    Jio added 28.7 subscribers Q1 2019 and hence its subscriber base increased to 215.3 million in Q1 2019 from 186.6 million in Q4 2018. ARPU declined slightly q-o-q to Rs 135.50 per month in Q1 2019 from Rs 137.1 per month in Q4 2018. The company reported subscriber churn of 0.3 per cent per month in Q1 2019 as compared to a slightly lower 0.25 per cent per month in Q4 2018.

  • Reliance plans to raise $6bn for consumer biz

    Reliance plans to raise $6bn for consumer biz

    MUMBAI: Reliance Industries Ltd has planned to raise about Rs 40,000 crore ($5.8 billion) in fresh debt for expansion of its consumer business, according to a Bloomberg report. The Mukesh Ambani-led company will raise funds through loans and bonds, mostly in the Indian currency.   

    The refining-to-retail conglomerate holds shareholder approval to raise as much as Rs 20,000 crore through non-convertible debentures. Because of the company’s new telecom venture along with its traditional petrochemical business total debt has tripled in the past five years.

    A part of the company’s investment this year will go for the roll out of newly announce fibre-broadband services. It will invest on acquisitions, including the purchase of telecom assets from Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd. The company has agreed to pay about Rs 173 billion to purchase spectrum, mobile-phone towers and fiber assets from Reliance Communications.

    According to data by Bloomberg, the company has total borrowings of about 2.2 trillion rupees currently. More than half of this debt has to be repaid by 2022. “Reliance needs funds to refinance existing long-term debt or replace short-term debt with longer tenors, and to fund its announced acquisitions,” Somshankar Sinha, a Mumbai-based analyst at Jefferies India said as quoted by Bloomberg.

    After tapping the rupee bond market four times already this year Unit Reliance Jio on Tuesday sought bids to raise Rs 1500 crore via three-year notes.

  • JioGigaFiber: all you need to know

    JioGigaFiber: all you need to know

    MUMBAI: With the launch of Jio back in 2016, business tycoon Mukesh Ambani reshaped the telecom business in India by disrupting the tariff charges. Riding on the popularity of his telecom venture, the Reliance Industry Limited (RIL) chairman now looks set to set off yet another price war. Addressing his shareholders at the company’s 41st Annual General Meeting, Ambani announced the launch of its fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) fixed line broadband service –  Jio Giga Fiber, the registration for which will begin on 15 August through the MyJio app and the Jio website. 

    “JioGigaFiber will be the largest greenfield fixed-line broadband rollout anywhere in the world,” said Ambani.

    • The initial roll out of the service will start from areas with maximum registrations. The company plans to target 1,100 cities.

    • Jio Giga Fiber service will be activated through a Jio Giga Router

    • Besides the basic internet service, Jio Giga Fiber will be bundles with a Jio Giga TV set top box, offering more than 600 TV channels as well as over 1000 movies with enabled voice command feature for TV

    • Another interesting feature is that of video calling through TV. Users can call any other TV connected through JioGigaFiber

    • Other amenities include multi-party video conferencing from the living room, voice activated virtual assistants, virtual reality gaming and digital shopping and smart-home solutions

    “Gone are the days of Mbps, now it will be about Gbps,” said Isha Ambani at the AGM.

    The company has rolled out a trial service offering of unlimited internet at 100 mbps for 90 days along with a monthly data quota of 100 GB for a security deposit of Rs 4,500 for the Optical Network Termination (ONT) device.  Those opting to disconnect the service will get a refund of the amount.

    Anticipating another disruptive set of services from Jio, market leader Airtel has also set in motion the revamp its existing wired broadband connection solutions. 
    For the upcoming war with Jio, the telco has set aside Rs 24,000 crore for the financial year.

    From current 89 cities, it wants to expand its service to 100 key cities targeting big data consumption zones. To cope up with competition, Bharti Airtel is also expected to bombard consumers with great offers.

    Also Read:

    It’s official! JioGigaFiber is Mukesh Ambani’s next big bet

    Jio & Hathway continue to lead wireless and wired Internet subs growth in 2018

  • It’s official! JioGigaFiber is Mukesh Ambani’s next big bet

    It’s official! JioGigaFiber is Mukesh Ambani’s next big bet

    MUMBAI: Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd today announced what the country had been talking about in hushed tones till now: high speed fixed lined broadband services for retail customers. It’s called JioGigaFiber and initial target is 1,100 cities. The regisrations for the same will be open from 15 August on the official Jio website and the app.

    “India ranks low in fixed broadband. The company has already invested more than 250 million dollars in the industry. We will now extend the service 1,100 cities to offer the most advanced fibre-based broadband services. This will mean a faster internet experience. A virtual reality experience for all citizens where you can control switches in your house from outside as well. This will redefine 24*7 emergency help for all homes across India. We are calling this the JioGigaFiber,” Ambani said while addressing the shareholders earlier in the day.

    An updated version of Jio phone, called JioPhone 2, was also launched with added applications and functionality.

    Isha Ambani said, “We are getting the three most popular apps, Facebook, Youtube and Whatsapp on the JioPhone.  JioPhone can send Whatsapp messages to other JioPhone users and other android and IOS users.”

    Jio fixed line broadband service would come directly to customer homes, unlike in most cases where the fiber reaches only until the building and the last few meters of end connectivity is done using the traditional cable that drastically reduces the speed and user experience due to patches and inferior cable qualities of such patch up.

    Keep tuned in for more updates.

  • TRAI fines Jio, Airtel, others for not meeting service quality norms

    TRAI fines Jio, Airtel, others for not meeting service quality norms

    MUMBAI: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) rapped leading operators, including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular on the knuckles for failing to meet the Quality of Service standards in the December quarter, reported news agency PTI.

    Data disruptor Reliance Jio was handed a fine of Rs 31 lakh based on the TRAI-defined service quality parameters such as Point of Interconnect congestion, accessibility of call centres and customer care. TRAI’s fine pertains to multiple circles or service areas in which Jio offers it service.

    Idea Cellular was fined Rs 28-29 lakh for the December quarter for its inability to match benchmarks on call drops, metering and billing, both pre-paid and post-paid, accessibility of call centre or customer care and its timelines for multiple circles.

    Bharti Airtel, the biggest player in the market, was slapped with a Rs 23 lakh for the same period for non-compliance on parameters entailing metering and billing (postpaid and prepaid) and accessibility of call centres, and stipulated response time on operators answering calls in certain circles.

    Vodafone was fined Rs 9 lakh for non-compliance of select criteria like time-bound refund of deposits after closure, response time for calls answered by operators, as well as call drops.

    Aircel and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) too were handed fines by the regulator.

    The fines were in line with TRAI’s renewed focus on quality benchmarks in the telecom sector.

    Last year, the regulator had ordered telcos to adhere to the quality of service benchmarks from October 1, 2017.

    Also Read:

    Third Madras high court judge gives TRAI tariff order thumbs up

    Comment: TRAI uplinks progressive recommendations; now MIB, others need to downlink them

  • Reliance Jio crosses 200 million subscriber mark

    Reliance Jio crosses 200 million subscriber mark

    MUMBAI: Within two years of its launch, Reliance Jio has crossed the 200 million subscriber mark. The Mukesh Ambani-owned telco reached this milestone in the shortest time ever, according to a report from financial Express. 

    Earlier Jio reported a subscriber base of 187 million at the end of March. Hence, in the last three months, the company added close to 9-10 million users. Given this speed, Jio is likely to overtake Idea Cellular’s 217-million user base and even Vodafone’s 222 million users. However, Vodafone and Idea are also concluding their merger making it India’s largest telco company.

    India’s current largest telco operator Bharti Airtel was the first in the country to cross 200 million subscribers back in 2014 which currently stands with 309 million wireless users.

    Jio has seen major success since its launch thanks to free voice calls in domestic territory and competitive data price. While Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India have been adding around 1.5 to two million users every month, Jio’s addition has been in the range of seven to eight million.

    After its launch in September 2016, Jio added 50 million subscribers in November of that year itself.

    Also Read:

    Reliance Jio to soon launch 5G services: all you need to know 

    Reliance Jio ready to disrupt wired broadband: Matthew Oomen

  • Reliance Jio continues data pricing onslaught with more offers

    Reliance Jio continues data pricing onslaught with more offers

    MUMBAI: Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio has upped the ante yet again. In the ongoing data pricing war, Jio’s latest move is bound to leave its rivals feeling more uneasy than before. The message is loud and clear: India’s wealthiest man is in no mood to relent in his bid to seize control of the country’s telecom market.

    Jio’s Rs. 799 prepaid recharge plan now offers 6.5GBs or gigabytes of per day high-speed 4G data for 28 days till June 30, a release from the company stated.

    The limited-period offer allows users 1.5GBs of per day additional high-speed 4G data every time they recharge with any daily-recurring data pack.

    The Rs  799 prepaid plan provides users with 182GBs of high-speed 4G data for a period of 28 days with a daily cap of 6.5GB data until the end of the month.

    Previously, this plan comprised 140GB data for a period of 28 days with a daily limit of 5GB data. Others features in the pack include unlimited local, STD, 100 free daily SMSes and roaming voice calls.

    As per Jio’s new schemes, Rs. 149, Rs. 349, Rs. 399 and Rs. 449 prepaid recharge plans include 3GB per day data for the validity period (valid till June 30, 2018).

    The Rs. 198, Rs. 398, Rs. 448 and Rs. 498 plans offer  3.5GB per day data for the validity period. Jio’s Rs. 299 plan provides 4.5GB per day data and Rs. 509 recharge pack comes with 5.5GB per day data.

    Reliance Jio customers can also avail Rs. 100 discount on all recharges of Rs. 300 and above and 20 per cent off on recharges under Rs. 300 price point on payments done via PhonePe wallet on the MyJio app.

    According to Reliance Industries Limited’s annual report, Jio had 186.6 million subscribers at the end of March, up 16.5% from the 160.1 million at the end of last year. The company, however, did not mention how many of these are active subscribers.

    In its first year of operations, the company generated a net profit of Rs 723 crore on a turnover of Rs 23,714 crore.

    Also Read:

    Reliance Jio readies Rs 60,000 cr war chest: Report

    Reliance Jio makes a punt on tech start-ups

    CCI okays RCom’s asset sale to Reliance Jio