Mumbai, November 5, 2007

Reliance Communications (RCom) is to invest $1 billion, of which $500 million as licence fee and another $500 million for infrastructure, for its Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) rollout in the country. The company is rolling out its IPTV services along with global IT giant Microsoft Corporation, with whom it has been working since 2003.

RCom, which has been been testing IPTV at over 20,000 households in the two metros - Mumbai and Delhi – will roll out the services by the end of this financial year.

"We will rollout the services in the top 30 cities and at certain leading metros by early 2008. The remaining rollout would take place in a phased manner," RCom chairman Anil Ambani said.

The company intends to rollout the services in the remaining cities and towns in a phased manner, which would be completed by the end of 2008.

"We are also in talks with leading content providers in the country, and considering that we need a large quantity of content, we will source the content from most the providers in the country," Ambani said.

RCom will pay Microsoft $500 million as license fees for using its suite Mediaroom, while the remaining $500 million investment would be for setting up IPTV infrastructure in the country, he added.

According to Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer, "IPTV is in its early stages in India, but would become a rage in the next 12-24 months. We are intending to provide services to tens of millions of customers in the country".

Reliance IPTV services will be powered by Microsoft's Mediaroom suite that will allow Reliance to deliver entirely new, connected and personalised TV experiences for Indian consumers. This will have advance features like video on demand (VOD), digital video recording, instant channel changing and personal media sharing.