Ambani hints end of CDMA + Tech Reliance subsidiary of RCom + Towers Infratel Business

In a conference call concluded just minutes ago, Reliance Communications [RCom] Chairman, Anil Ambani said that by March-08 all CAPEX investments on the CDMA front would be done. Mr. Ambani hopes to end the year FY08 with a CAPEX of $5.2 bn and has a guidance of $6 bn CAPEX for FY2009, of which $2bn will go into Passive Infrastructure [mostly for GSM], ~$1 bn for GSM rollout and the rest split amongst DTH, Broadband, IPTV, Global Voice and Data [Long Distance + Data].

To a question on how many years is the management looking for towards roll out of GSM services in 14 new circles, Mr. Ambani said, RCom doesn’t have the luxury of time and it has to be less than 12 months and not years 🙂 Mr. Ambani further added that RCom will receive a refund of Rs 112 crore of the Rs 1,651 GSM license fees.

Mr. Ambani also said that the newly created entity, Tech Reliance will be a 100% subsidiary of Rcom focused on building Intellectual Capital. It will serve to the IT needs of all the ADA group companies.

RCom will leverage the passive infrastructure [Reliance Towers / Infratel] between GSM and CDMA operations. The company has been approached by number of investors for investments in this subsidiary. RCom is open for external tenancy for sharing passive infrastructure and is in talks with new entrants who already hold LoI.

RCom now has wired up 727,000 building in the upscale localities of Tier-I cities with Optical Fiber network who are serviced with Broadband, Home Wi-Fi, Video Surveillance service, Multiplay Gaming and fully interactive IPTV. Most of RCom’s business in Bandwidth is from Enterprise customers where they are seeing fat margins.

RCom will list Flag Telecom separately only after the integration if Yipes Communications. No time frame was given.

Disclaimer: Through various means I hold RCom shares for my clients and have asked them to aggressively BUY the stock lately.

Tags: Reliance, CDMA GSM, Qualcomm, Telecom India