Reliance Jio & RCom ink intra-city fibre deal

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. (RJIL), the 4G division of Reliance Industries which is owned by Mukesh Ambani has signed the third telecom infrastructure deal with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications (RCom), for a stretch of 500,000 kms intra-city fibre across 300 cities across the country.

The estimated Rs 5000 crore deal has to be closed well in time with the official launch of 4G in September this year.

In the year 2013, RJIL signed the first inter-city sharing deal with RCom for 120,000 kms of optic fibre worth Rs 1,200 crore. Post this, RJIL signed a Rs 12,000 crore second deal with RCom for access to 45,000 towers in the month of August.

With the signing up of the third deal between RJIL and RCom, the total transactions stand at Rs 18,200 crores.

According to a company statement, “This 3rd agreement further strengthens the comprehensive framework of business co-operation between Reliance Jio Infocomm and Reliance Communications. The agreement is based on arm’s length pricing at prevailing market prices.”

Another industry professional has stated that with the RJIL-RCom deal, RCom becomes the second largest tower tenancy holder in India with an average ratio of 2.7x, following Viom Networks – with industry’s highest tenancy ratio of 2.8x. It is even higher than India’s largest tower company, Indus Towers having a tenancy ratio of around 2x.