It's launch time for Reliance Industries' broadband and petrochemicals projects

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, India's largest private company by revenue, enters the final lap of commissioning its broadband and petrochemicals projects, which costs about $38 billion (around 75 per cent of the company's market capitalisation) to the company. Beginning with the commissioning of Paraxylene (PX) capacity by September, the company will operationalise the petcoke gasifier and the ethylene off-gas cracker projects by the end of the year.

Another ambitious launch is the digital broadband business, Jio. The company executives say that they are in the process of extending the soft launch to outside RIL-branded LYF phones. There are already 1.5 million users testing Jio network now. RJio received the frequency allocation in the remaining four circles (Rajasthan, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala) on July 6 wherein deployment and optimisation will take place in six to eight weeks. The launch is expected to be in September-October during the festive season. RIL has invested nearly $20 billion in the venture.

Jio is the first telecom operator to hold a pan-India Unified Licence, with the highest amount of liberalised spectrum deployed for LTE. This will provide significant network capacity and deep coverage. Citi report says Jio is currently radiating in 18,000 cities and towns and 2 lakh villages in the 1800 and 2300 MHz bands. The number of test users has increased from 0.5 million to 1.5 million quarter-on-quarter, following the extension of the soft launch. The soft launch has already extended to Samsung phone users recently.
The MiFi (mobile Wi-Fi hotspot) devices are also expected to be launched shortly. Average monthly usage of the test users has increased quarter-on-quarter from 18 GB of data and 250 minutes of voice to 26 GB of data and 355 mins of voice, the report added.

The slightly delayed $18.5-billion downstream expansion will also be commissioned in phases by December. The polyester chain capacities are already in place. The gasifier commissioning is expected to boost the refining margins by $2-2.5 a barrel, say analysts. "With this, FY18 will be the first full year of operation of all downstream expansion projects," they add.

The capital cycle has spiked the net debt of RIL, which stood at Rs 95,900 crore at the end of the first quarter.