Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJI), the telecommunications arm of Reliance Industries Ltd, has applied to the department of telecom (DoT) for a unified licence.
This unified licence will help Reliance Jio offer voice-based services on the broadband wireless access spectrum besides 4G data services as per the recently issued unified Licence guidelines issued by the department.
A report by news agency PTI quoted DoT secretary MF Farooqui and said a few other players have also done the same, but did not name the others. Reliance Jio is the only broadband wireless access (BWA) player with a national licence to offer 4G services.
The unified licence guidelines were issued earlier this year when The Telecom Commission (TC) has given its approval to the companies holding internet services licences for 4G spectrum to provide voice services by paying an additional fee of around Rs 1,600 crore each.
Other 4G spectrum holders which could be applicants and benefit from these guidelines are Augere and Tikona Digital. Tikona Digital is also raising fresh funding.
Two months ago, Reliance Jio had signed an agreement with Reliance Communications Ltd (RCOM) for sharing RCOM’s nationwide telecom towers infrastructure. The agreement has an aggregate value of over Rs 12,000 crore during the agreement’s lifetime. As per the pact, Reliance Jio will use up to 45,000 ground- and rooftop-based towers across RCOM’s network for accelerated roll-out of its 4G services.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)