Anil Ambani Group’s Reliance Communications is all set to make a ‘major announcement’ in Mumbai tomorrow, the company said in an invite for journalists.
Though the exact nature of the announcement was not revealed, it is being suggested that the company is likely to unveil something related to its ongoing merger with Aircel Cellular, even though the invite sounds like it is for a new product announcement.
Update: The announcement was about the launch of its Internet of Things offering.
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The merger, announced two months ago, involves combining the wireless operations of the Anil Ambani company, that of Sistema Shyam Teleservices and the wireless operations of Aircel Cellular, a unit of Malaysia’s Maxis.
The completion of the deal is expected only in early 2017.
However, given that both company boards have given their approval, the two are free to start working together and start planning for joint services.
The new company is expected to soon unveil a new brand and logo, and also convert a major part of its 2G spectrum into 4G spectrum by making payments to the Department of Telecom.
In its invite, RCom said it will “announce a game-changing and exciting new venture” tomorrow. The company is set to announce its quarterly results today.
Separately, RCom is soon expected to start offering Voice-over-LTE or VoLTE services in India as well.
The merger with Aircel will allow RCom to double its 4G and 3G spectrum and capacity in India, making it a serious player in the market.
It would also allow the company to offer competitive tariffs to take on rivals like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel.
At present, the company has very limited spectrum and only on one single band of LTE. However, it does offer 4G services under a tie-up with Reliance Jio, which enables it to tap into the network created by Jio.
Despite this, RCom is by far the costliest 4G operator in the country and charges around Rs 200 per GB of 4G data. In comparison, others like Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular charge around Rs 140 per GB.