Reliance Communications
Encyclopedia
Reliance Communications Ltd. (commonly called RCOM) is an Indian broadband
and telecommunication
s company headquartered in Navi Mumbai
, India. RCOM is the world's 16th largest mobile phone operator with over 144 million subscribers. Established on 2004, a subsidiary of the Reliance Group. The company has five segments: Wireless
segment includes wireless operations of the company; broadband
segment includes broadband operations of the company; Global segment include national long distance and international long distance operations of the company and the wholesale operations of its subsidiaries; Investment segment includes investment activities of the Group companies, and Other segment is consists of the customer care activities and direct-to-home (DTH) activities.
clientele includes 2,100 Indian and multinational corporation
s, and over 800 global, regional and domestic carriers. The company has established a pan-India, next-generation, integrated (wireless
and wireline), convergent (voice, data and video) digital network that is capable of supporting services spanning the entire communications value chain, covering over 24,000 towns and 600,000 villages. Reliance Communications owns and operates the next-generation IP
-enabled connectivity infrastructure, comprising over 190,000 kilometers of fiber optic
cable systems in India, USA, Europe, Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.
and application delivery services company Yipes Enterprise Services for a cash amount of 1200 crore (the equivalent of US$300 million). The deal was announced of the overseas acquisition, the Reliance group has amalgamated the United States-based Flag Telecom for $210 million (roughly 950 crore). RTL operates in Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Assam, Kolkata and Northeast, offering GSM services.
(IDC) services located in Mumbai
, Bangalore
, Hyderabad and Chennai
. Spread across 650000 sq ft (60,387 m²) of hosting space, it offers IT infrastructure management services to large, medium and small enterprises. It is one of the leading data center service provider in India and provides services like colocation
, managed server hosting, virtual private server and data security. It has launched cloud computing services, offering product under its infrastructure as a server (Iaas) and software as a service (Saas) portfolio, which enables enterprises, mainly small and medium, a cost-effective IT infrastructure and application on pay-per-user model.
, Orissa
, Delhi
, Himachal Pradesh
, Jammu & Kashmir, Kanpur, Kolkata
, Madhya Pradesh
, Mumbai
, North East, Punjab, Rajasthan
and West Bengal
.
On 11 June 2010, the broadband wireless access (BWA) or 4G
spectrum auction in India ended. Infotel Broadband, a subsidary of Reliance Industries
, won pan-India licence in the auction across 22 circles, the only telecom operator other than state-owned BSNL/MTNL to do so.. Infotel paid the government 12847.77 crore for the licence.
According to Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI)
director general Rajan S. Mathews, Reliance Industries is expected to launch 4G services in December 2011. They are expected to use LTE
technology.
, Airtel, BSNL, Idea
, Loop Mobile
, MTNL, MTS, Ping Mobile, S Tel
, Tata DoCoMo
, Tata Indicom
, Uninor
, Videocon, Virgin Mobile
(GSM & CDMA) and Vodafone
.
arrested former Telecommunications Union Minister A.Raja
. The CBI also arrested R.K. Chandolia, Raja's personal aide, and Siddharth Behura, the former Telecom Secretary. Both A.Raja and R.K Chandolia are heard in conversation with Niira Radia in the released Radia tapes.
On February 8, 2011, the CBI arrested Mumbai based Dynamix Balwas
(DB) group managing director Shahid Usman Balwa
in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation scam. The CBI has evidence from the Income Tax department that Shahid Usman Balwa, considered close to A. Raja, was instrumental in channelling the kickbacks allegedly received by the former telecom minister.
On March 29, 2011, in Delhi, the CBI arrested Asif Balwa (younger brother of the arrested former Managing Director of DB-Etisalat Group, Shahid Balwa
) and Rajeev Agarwal for their alleged involvement in money transfer to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
's (DMK) Kalaignar TV
channel.
On April 2, 2011, the CBI filed its first 80,000 page chargesheet
in the 2G spectrum scam
before a Special Court in Delhi naming nine individuals and three companies. It said the wrongful acts of the accused deprived the government exchequer of possible revenues amounting to INR Rs 30,985 crore (USD $ 6,983,322,233). The accused include the following individuals:
Broadband Internet access
Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just "broadband", is a high data rate, low-latency connection to the Internet— typically contrasted with dial-up access using a 56 kbit/s modem or satellite Internet with inherently high latency....
and telecommunication
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
s company headquartered in Navi Mumbai
Navi Mumbai
Navi Mumbai is a Planned Satellite City on the west coast of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It was developed in 1972 as a twin city of Mumbai, and is the largest planned city on the planet, with under the jurisdiction of the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation and a total area of . Navi Mumbai...
, India. RCOM is the world's 16th largest mobile phone operator with over 144 million subscribers. Established on 2004, a subsidiary of the Reliance Group. The company has five segments: Wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
segment includes wireless operations of the company; broadband
Broadband Internet access
Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just "broadband", is a high data rate, low-latency connection to the Internet— typically contrasted with dial-up access using a 56 kbit/s modem or satellite Internet with inherently high latency....
segment includes broadband operations of the company; Global segment include national long distance and international long distance operations of the company and the wholesale operations of its subsidiaries; Investment segment includes investment activities of the Group companies, and Other segment is consists of the customer care activities and direct-to-home (DTH) activities.
Background
It ranks among the top 5 telecommunications companies. Retrieved 2010-04-14. in the world by number of customers in a single country. Reliance Communications corporateCorporation
A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...
clientele includes 2,100 Indian and multinational corporation
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...
s, and over 800 global, regional and domestic carriers. The company has established a pan-India, next-generation, integrated (wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
and wireline), convergent (voice, data and video) digital network that is capable of supporting services spanning the entire communications value chain, covering over 24,000 towns and 600,000 villages. Reliance Communications owns and operates the next-generation IP
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
-enabled connectivity infrastructure, comprising over 190,000 kilometers of fiber optic
Optical fiber
An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of...
cable systems in India, USA, Europe, Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.
Reliance Telecommunication Limited (RTL)
In July 2007, the company announced it was buying US-based managed ethernetEthernet
Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....
and application delivery services company Yipes Enterprise Services for a cash amount of 1200 crore (the equivalent of US$300 million). The deal was announced of the overseas acquisition, the Reliance group has amalgamated the United States-based Flag Telecom for $210 million (roughly 950 crore). RTL operates in Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Assam, Kolkata and Northeast, offering GSM services.
Reliance Globalcom
RGL owns the worlds largest private undersea cable system, spanning 65,000 km seamlessly integrated with Reliance Communications. Over 110,000 km of domestic optic fiber provides a robust Global Service Delivery Platform, connecting 40 key business markets in India, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and the U.S.Reliance Internet Data Center (RIDC)
RIDC provides Internet Data CenterData center
A data center is a facility used to house computer systems and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems...
(IDC) services located in Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, Hyderabad and Chennai
Chennai
Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...
. Spread across 650000 sq ft (60,387 m²) of hosting space, it offers IT infrastructure management services to large, medium and small enterprises. It is one of the leading data center service provider in India and provides services like colocation
Colocation
Colocation is the act of placing multiple entities within a single location.Colocation is often used in the data sourcing industry to mean off-site data storage, usually in a data center. This is very important for businesses since the loss of data can be crucial for companies of any size...
, managed server hosting, virtual private server and data security. It has launched cloud computing services, offering product under its infrastructure as a server (Iaas) and software as a service (Saas) portfolio, which enables enterprises, mainly small and medium, a cost-effective IT infrastructure and application on pay-per-user model.
Reliance Digital TV
Reliance Big TV launched in August 2008 and thereafter acquired 1 million subscribers within 90 days of launch, the fastest ramp-up ever achieved by any DTH operator in the world. Reliance Big TV offers its 1.7 million customers DVD-quality pictures on over 200 channels using MPEG-4 technology.Offices
Reliance Communications Limited has its offices in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Patna and Pune.3G and 4G
On 19 May 2010, the 3G spectrum auction in India ended. Reliance Communications paid 5864.29 crores for spectrum in 13 circles. The circles it will provide 3G in are AssamAssam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
, Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
, Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh is a state in Northern India. It is spread over , and is bordered by the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir on the north, Punjab on the west and south-west, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on the south, Uttarakhand on the south-east and by the Tibet Autonomous Region on the east...
, Jammu & Kashmir, Kanpur, Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
, Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....
, Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, North East, Punjab, Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
and West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
.
On 11 June 2010, the broadband wireless access (BWA) or 4G
4G
In telecommunications, 4G is the fourth generation of cellular wireless standards. It is a successor to the 3G and 2G families of standards. In 2009, the ITU-R organization specified the IMT-Advanced requirements for 4G standards, setting peak speed requirements for 4G service at 100 Mbit/s...
spectrum auction in India ended. Infotel Broadband, a subsidary of Reliance Industries
Reliance Industries
Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian conglomerate company headquartered at Mumbai, India. The company operates through three business segments: petrochemicals, refining, and oil and gas, other segment of the company includes textile, retail business, special economic zone development and...
, won pan-India licence in the auction across 22 circles, the only telecom operator other than state-owned BSNL/MTNL to do so.. Infotel paid the government 12847.77 crore for the licence.
According to Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI)
Cellular Operators Association of India
The Cellular Operators Association of India is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed organisation, seeking to play a proactive role in India’s telecommunications process. It was set up in 1995 with a vision to help the service providers to establish and sustain world...
director general Rajan S. Mathews, Reliance Industries is expected to launch 4G services in December 2011. They are expected to use LTE
3GPP Long Term Evolution
3GPP Long Term Evolution, usually referred to as LTE, is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals. It is based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA network technologies, increasing the capacity and speed using new modulation techniques...
technology.
Technology
Currently Reliance is only operator who provides up to 28 Mbps speed in india with its 3G MIMO technology.Competitors
Reliance Communications competes with 14 other mobile operators throughout India. They are AircelAircel
Aircel group is a mobile phone service provider in India. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India. The Aircel group is a joint venture between Maxis Communications Berhad of Malaysia and Sindya Securities & Investments Private Limited, whose current...
, Airtel, BSNL, Idea
Idea cellular
Idea Cellular, usually referred to as Idea, is an Indian wireless telecom company based in Mumbai, India. Idea is the 3rd largest mobile services operator in India, in revenue terms, and recorded of over 98.4 million customers as of August 2011....
, Loop Mobile
Loop Mobile India
Loop Mobile , usually referred to as LOOP is a mobile phone service provider in India. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage in Assam, Kolkata, North East, Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan after receiving a license to operate across 21 telecom...
, MTNL, MTS, Ping Mobile, S Tel
S Tel
S Tel Private Limited is a GSM based cellular operator in India. It has a unified services access license in Orissa, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, North East, Assam and Jammu & Kashmir...
, Tata DoCoMo
Tata DoCoMo
TATA DoCoMo, referred to as DoCoMo , is a Tata Teleservices Limited owned cellular service provider on the GSM and CDMA platform-arising out of the Tata Group's strategic joint venture with Japanese telecom giant NTT Docomo in November 2008...
, Tata Indicom
Tata Indicom
Tata Teleservices Limited is a Indian broadband and telecommunications provider based in Mumbai, India. It is a subsidiary of the Tata Group, an Indian conglomerate...
, Uninor
Uninor
Uninor is a mobile operator in India. The company holds Unified Access Service licences to offer mobile telephony services in each of India’s 22 telecom circles, and has received spectrum to roll out services in 21 of these...
, Videocon, Virgin Mobile
Virgin Mobile India
Virgin Mobile India Limited is a cellular telephone service provider company which is a joint venture between Tata Teleservices and Richard Branson's Virgin Group. Currently, the company uses Tata's CDMA network to offer its services under the brand name Virgin Mobile, and it has also started GSM...
(GSM & CDMA) and Vodafone
Vodafone Essar
Vodafone Essar, formerly Hutchison Essar, is a cellular operator in India that covers 23 telecom circles in India. It is based in Mumbai. On July 2011, Vodafone Group agreed terms for the buy-out of its partner Essar from its Indian mobile phone business. The UK firm paid $5.46 billion to its...
.
2G Spectrum Scam Arrests and Chargesheets
On February 2, 2011, the CBICentral Bureau of Investigation
The Central Bureau of Investigation is a government agency of India that serves as a criminal investigation body, national security agency and intelligence agency. It was established on 1 April 1963 and evolved from the Special Police Establishment founded in 1941...
arrested former Telecommunications Union Minister A.Raja
A. Raja
Andimuthu Raja is an Indian politician from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam political party. He was a member of the 15th Lok Sabha representing the Nilgiris constituency of Tamil Nadu....
. The CBI also arrested R.K. Chandolia, Raja's personal aide, and Siddharth Behura, the former Telecom Secretary. Both A.Raja and R.K Chandolia are heard in conversation with Niira Radia in the released Radia tapes.
On February 8, 2011, the CBI arrested Mumbai based Dynamix Balwas
DB Realty
DB Realty is one of India's largest real estate developer based in Mumbai, and is the flagship company of DB Group DB Realty Limited builds residential, commercial and gated community developments...
(DB) group managing director Shahid Usman Balwa
Shahid Balwa
Shahid Usman Balwa is an entrepreneur based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. He is one of the Promoters of Mumbai-based DB Group which runs DB Realty India's 3rd largest realtor, DB Hospitality and Swan Telecom .-Early life:...
in connection with the 2G spectrum allocation scam. The CBI has evidence from the Income Tax department that Shahid Usman Balwa, considered close to A. Raja, was instrumental in channelling the kickbacks allegedly received by the former telecom minister.
On March 29, 2011, in Delhi, the CBI arrested Asif Balwa (younger brother of the arrested former Managing Director of DB-Etisalat Group, Shahid Balwa
Shahid Balwa
Shahid Usman Balwa is an entrepreneur based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. He is one of the Promoters of Mumbai-based DB Group which runs DB Realty India's 3rd largest realtor, DB Hospitality and Swan Telecom .-Early life:...
) and Rajeev Agarwal for their alleged involvement in money transfer to the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is a state political party in the states of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, India. It is a Dravidian party founded by C. N. Annadurai as a breakaway faction from the Dravidar Kazhagam headed by Periyar...
's (DMK) Kalaignar TV
Kalaignar TV
Kalaignar TV is a Tamil language satellite television channel based in Chennai, India.-History:After disputes between Kalanithi Maran and M. K. Azhagiri, Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi launched this channel on September 15 2007...
channel.
On April 2, 2011, the CBI filed its first 80,000 page chargesheet
Chargesheet
A Chargesheet is a formal document of accusation prepared by a law-enforcement agency in India. It is distinct from the First Information Report , usually refers to one or more FIRs, and charges an individual or organization for the crimes specified in those FIR...
in the 2G spectrum scam
2G spectrum scam
The 2G spectrum scandal involved officials in the government of India illegally undercharging mobile telephony companies for frequency allocation licenses, which they would use to create 2G subscriptions for cell phones...
before a Special Court in Delhi naming nine individuals and three companies. It said the wrongful acts of the accused deprived the government exchequer of possible revenues amounting to INR Rs 30,985 crore (USD $ 6,983,322,233). The accused include the following individuals: