Reliance Industries, one of India’s largest private sector companies, led by Mukesh Ambani, may enter into a joint venture with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communication in an attempt to launch cheaper tablet devices for as less as $120. As per reports, Reliance may make use of RCom’s towers and fiber optic cables to offer high-speed data services to users. The two companies will be coming together for the first time after their split in 2005. However, sources claim that RCom will not be involved in any equity investment in this deal.
Further, sources claim that apart from the towers, Reliance may also use RCom’s transmission facilities like domestic and international long distance networks to carry its data traffic. Consequently, Reliance will reportedly have access to as many as 50,000 towers of RCom across 1,500 cities in India. According to reports, in May 2010, both the Ambani brothers terminated an incomplete agreement which was in place for five years, thereby allowing Reliance Industries to re-enter telecom, following which it became the only company to acquire licenses for wireless broadband services across the nation for US $2.6 billion.