The Hindu Business Line : RCom to spend over Rs 5,000 cr for GSM roll-out

New Delhi, Nov. 1 Anil Dhirubhai Ambani promoted Reliance Communications will invest more than Rs 5,000 crore to roll out its GSM services across the country.

The company had recently bagged the permission from the Government to offer both GSM and CDMA technologies.

Speaking to analysts in a conference call, Mr Ambani said that the electronics alone would cost around Rs 5,000 crore and further investments will be needed for acquiring spectrum and setting up passive infrastructure.

The company has already paid Rs 1,651 crore to DoT for taking a pan-Indian GSM licence and could be among the first to get spectrum in case the Government decides to continue with the existing first come first served allocation policy.

Mr Ambani said that RCom’s GSM expansion will derive leverage from existing infrastructure. “Dual network operations lead to capex rationalisation and even stronger margins,” he said.

Network coverage

“India is the fastest growing telecom market with annual run rate of 100 million net additions. RCom is well positioned to participate in growth opportunity. We plan to add 300 million more Indians to RCom’s network coverage by year end,” Mr Ambani said. Reliance’s network will cover over 100 crore Indians in six months.

Mr Ambani said that the company’s EBITDA margin is among top 10 global telecom companies and the ARPU is among the highest in the country. The company plans to launch IPTV and DTH services by year-end.

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