Anil Ambani addresses AGM 2016 highlights virtual merger between Rcom and Jio

Anil Ambani the CEO of Reliance communications today addressed the Annual general meeting for the shareholders of the company in Mumbai. The event started off with Gurdip Singh highlighting the shift in consumption trends of the mobile user today who spends 90 mins a day on apps as opposed to 10 mins on a voice call, indicating that data is the current growth driver for this decade like voice was for the previous one.

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“While last year the average smartphone consumed only 200 MB, in a couple of years the number could go to 2 GB per phone. There will be 300 mln 4G users in two years from now,” Singh said. He added that 75% of Internet consumption happens indoors, and the company must have the right kind of spectrum to be able to cater to this need and it’s 850 MHz spectrum is more than capable of penetrating through walls to provide seamless coverage.

Anil Ambani addressed the issue of the upcoming spectrum auction and said that Rcom currently has all the 2G, 3G and 4G spectrum that it needs to sustain operations and will be further strengthening its spectrum portfolio through partnering and merging with MTS and Aircel. Rcom will be among the top operators in 12 circles post its merger with Aircel. Ambani said that Rcom has accomplished a virtual merger with his brother’s telecom company Jio through spectrum trading and sharing agreements along with other passive infrastructure sharing agreements signed in the past.

Rcom in partnership with Jio is currently able to offer Gold standard LTE network and services to its subscribers Pan India, whereas incumbent operators will have to spend heavily in the upcoming auction to buy 4G airwaves to be able to survive the competition. Rcom has already crossed 1 million paying 4G subscribers on its network within 90 days of launch and they consume more than 1 GB data in a month. Rcom is actively looking to monetise its non core businesses like towers and DTH to reduce its debt by 75%.