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RCOM, GTL Infra strike Rs 50,000-crore telecom tower deal

admin — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 04:37:32 +0000

Reliance Communications Ltd (RCOM), and its subsidiary Reliance Infratel Ltd (RINFRATEL) and GTL Infrastructure Ltd (GTL Infra) agreed for a Rs 50,000-crore ($11 billion) deal to create the world’s largest independent telecom infrastructure company, neither owned nor controlled by any telecom operator, said a company release. This transformational deal will be implemented through a demerger of RINFRATEL’s tower assets into GTL Infra.

India’s largest optic fibre network of over 200,000 kms and related assets presently, owned by RINFRATEL will remain under RCOM’s ownership.

As per the deal, RCOM will receive cash infusion leading to substantial reduction of its consolidated gross debt and improved leverage ratios, contributing to enhanced financial flexibility. Again, over over 2 million shareholders of RCOM and the minority shareholders of RINFRATEL are to get free listed shares of GTL Infra.

Details on the cash infusion to Reliance Comm, and the share swap ratios will be finalised in due course, the statement said.

The merged entity will have over 80,000 towers and over 1,25,000 tenancies from over 10 telecom operators such as Reliance Communications, Aircel, Etisalat DB Telecom, MTS, Uninor Telecom, Videocon Mobile, Tata Teleservices, Vodafone, S Tel In addition, the merged entity will have a firm option on additional 75,000 tenancies from leading players.

Based on developments in the Indian telecom sector, including inter alia the likely future demand for telecom infrastructure across the country from 14 players in 2G, and winners in the recent auction for

3G (9 players) and BWA (Broadband Wireless Access – 8 players), the merged entity is expected to derive substantially higher tenancy ratios, apart from scale benefits and operational synergies.

RCOM launches unlimited internet access on mobile phones

Editorial Team — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 05:40:18 +0000

Offers unlimited MobileNet Plan for GSM subscribers
Offers flexibility to access internet on the move anytime, anywhere and bundled content download for prepaid subscribers
Easy access to social networking sites, IM applications, chat services and email
RCOM to leverage nationwide distribution muscle to market MobileNet

India’s CDMA and GSM mobile operator Reliance Communications, said it would offer unlimited internet access to subscribers on their mobile phones at Rs 99 per month. RCOM, through this plan will also allow customers to access social networking sites like Facebook, Orkut, instant messaging applications, chat services, Yahoo mail, Gmail, Hotmail on the move and also download free multimedia content on-deck, said in a statement.

As part of its plans to launch 3G services in India, Rcom is implementing major initiatives to create a platform for the roll-out of 3G services in the country. The company is taking the first step by creating an enabling environment for greater adoption of mobile internet in India as a long term measure to facilitate mass adoption of 3G services in the country. RCOM has won license to offer 3G services in 13 Indian circles including Mumbai and Delhi.

Mr Mahesh Prasad, President Marketing – Wireless Business, Reliance Communications said, “An environment that facilitates large scale mobile internet usage is key to the success of 3G in India. Through our special MobileNet Plan we are gearing up to create an enabling infrastructure that will allow customers to seamlessly adopt 3G services on the move in India. This special mobile internet plan offers seamless connectivity to the Internet on mobile across the country. Our customers will be allowed unlimited access to internet and any sites of their choice on the move using the mobile as an intermediate.”

This MobileNet Plan will be available to new and existing, post-paid and prepaid subscribers of RCOM’s GSM service. As part of its business outlook, RCOM expects the GSM business to make significant contribution to its mobile data revenues and usage. In order enable adoption of mobile internet services amongst prepaid customers, RCOM has bundled free access to its VAS platform R-World as well as free multimedia content worth Rs 99/- alongwith the Unlimited MobileNet Plan.

RCOM’s Mobile Internet Plans are also available at lower subscription rates for the convenience of the customers. These include Day Pass @ Rs 5, Weekly Pass at Rs 29, Fortnight Pass at Rs. 51

Reliance Communications is rolling out this plan across 24,000 cities and 600,000 villages in India. The importance RCOM impresses on its mobile data revenues is emphasized by the fact that the company is rolling out its MobileNet offer on a mammoth scale in the country. RCOM will leverage its entire retail distribution network comprising of over 240 Reliance World Stores, over 2500 Reliance Mobile Stores and more than 2500 Reliance Mobile & Reliance World Stores and over 7 lakh retailers to market this product.

As per RCOM’s Fair Usage Policy, the unlimited mobile internet access is capped at 2.5GB per month. Beyond quota usage charges of 10p/10kb only.

RCom and TTSL launch SMS-based push e-mail service

Editorial Team — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 05:40:22 +0000

India’s major telecom players Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices launch SMS-based email service on both GSM and CDMA wireless network in India.

Both the RCom and TTSL are launching this Email-to-SMS technology service in alliance with iseemedia, a leading Canadian software development company focused on the commercialisation of its email Service Delivery Platform to the mass market.

iseemail supports all types of email messaging systems in India through standard POP3 & IMAP4. It also offers access to consumer messaging from Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo.co.in, Indiatimes emails and more

Mr. Krishna Durbha, Head – VAS, Reliance Communications said, “iseemedia provides the ideal platform to deliver our next generation service to drive more email usage among our existing subscribers.” We believe our push email service can deliver substantial revenue upside over the years to RCOM.”
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RCom is offering email service on its pre-paid and post-paid users at a subscription fee of Rs.30 and a usage tariff of 0.50 paise per SMS sent. iseemedia receives a percentage of revenue from every user transaction.

‘Push 4 All Mail’ by Tata Teleservices will allow Indicom and DOCOMO customers to access their Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo emails on any type of handset via SMS.

Mr. Zubin Dubash, AVP VAS, New Products Development, Tata Teleservices Limited, said “Push 4 All Mail is a revolutionary service that will change the way people communicate. Customers will have to no longer worry whether their handsets are GPRS/BREW enabled or not since Push 4 All Mail is a ubiquitous service that will provide hassle free easy to use email service on SMS. Today consumer preferences are changing dramatically and as a telecom operator it’s important to listen to consumer’s voice and offer services that make a meaningful impact both in terms of service and revenues.”

Tata Indicom & Tata Docomo subscribers can avail this service at Rs 15 per month & 50 paise for every SMS sent to the shortcode.