Mukesh Ambani's RIL In Talks With Alcatel-lucent
Mukesh Ambani's RIL is now in talks with telecom equipment giant Alcatel-Lucent to procure broadband gear, a senior company official said on Wednesday.
- (1888PressRelease) August 21, 2010 - Mukesh Ambani's RIL is now in talks with telecom equipment giant Alcatel-Lucent to procure broadband gear, a senior company official said.
Munish Seth, the newly appointed country head for the company's Indian business, told reporters that Alcatel-Lucent expects the first set of broadband gear orders to come in early 2011. "We are in initial level of talks with most of the people who have won the spectrum. These majors include India's largest listed conglomerate, Reliance Industries, and Tikona Digital Networks." he added.
Earlier this year, many of the India's top mobile firms like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Tata Teleservices and Idea Cellular spent a combined over $20 billion to grab licenses in recent auctions of 3G and broadband wireless radio airwaves in the fastest-growing cellular market.
But, the dark horse was yet to arrive as Reliance Industries, controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, made a dramatic return to the telecom business with the $1 billion acquisition of Infotel Broadband, which was the only company to win a nationwide license for broadband wireless spectrum in the government auction. The future plans for RIL are quite aggressive as well. They plan to invest about $5 billion in the venture over the next two years.
Considering that Alcatel-Lucent Chief Executive Ben Verwaayen had mentioned in June that they are considering setting up their global services headquarters in India which would require an investment of $500 million in investments over three years, Mukesh Ambani may be the jack of the pack amongst its competitors.
All these decisions though are facing issues regarding Regulation Concerns as India has India tightened rules for telecom gear imports saying vendors must allow inspection of their equipment and made carriers solely responsible for the security of their networks, addressing security worries that had led to restrictions on Chinese manufacturers. Such regulation norms are proving to be bottlenecks in the process.
Alcatel-Lucent is a pretty huge player in the field and it would be quite beneficial for Reliance Industries if this deal goes in their favor and will soon be fierce contenders for Bharti Airtel for the top slot in the mobile communication industry.
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