Ambanis join hands again with Rs 12,000 cr tower deal

The Ambani brothers have again come together in a business deal that might signal a growing cooperation between their groups in the future. Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom arm of Mukesh Ambani group, and Anil Ambani-controlled RCom on Friday announced the signing of Rs 12,000 telecom tower deal.

Under the terms of the agreement, Reliance Jio Infocomm will utilise up to 45,000 towers of RCom for rolling out 4G services. The deal would help RCom to lower its debt load while Reliance Jio would be able to roll out 4G services quickly.

"Reliance Jio Infocomm will utilise up to 45,000 ground and rooftop based towers across RCom's nationwide network for accelerated roll-out of its state-of-the-art 4G services," the two companies said in separate but identical statements.

The two companies had earlier in April this year signed an agreement for sharing inter-city optic fiber network. The pact was valued at Rs 1,200 crore.

Reliance Jio Infocomm is the only company which had in 2010 won a pan-India spectrum for 4G services but is yet to start commercial services.