Reliance inks telecom deal with Bharti
MobilePundit writes…The story is really about Reliane Retail signing a deal with Bharti Airtel to source mobile and enterprise communication services.
Reliance Retail CEO Raghu Pillai confirmed that talks are on.
All stores would be connected to each other and to the logistics chains to meet our high-end communication needs,??? Mr Pillai said. Reliance plans to invest Rs 25,000 crore in its retail venture, spread across 784 cities and 6,000 towns in the country. It expects revenues of over Rs 1 lakh crore by 2011.
Confirmed a Bharti Airtel spokesperson.
We have tied up with Reliance Retail to provide enterprise solutions, we have expertise in telecom solutions and are going to provide world-class services to all our clients. If we are competitors in another space, so be it. These solutions will also be put to captive use for Bharti-Walmart,??? he added.
Another interesting tidbit in the article is that Reliance is planning a pan-India Wimax network for back-end communication needs of its SEZs.
Reliance plans to invest about $750 million (Rs 3,400 crore) to obtain spectrum and lay out the network. Reliance Retail has already announced that it would be looking at a GSM-Wimax roll out for its mobile and enterprise communication needs.
Reliance Retail is expected to have a network of 8,000 retail stores across the country. It will be the biggest rival to Bharti group’s retail foray with Wal-Mart. The retail market size in India is estimated to be about $300, billion which is expected to grow to $427 billion by 2010. Organised retail currently accounts for only 2-3% of the retail market in India.
