The UAE-based Etisalat recently bought 45 per cent of Swan Telecom, which has paid about Rs 1,500 crore for GSM licences in 13 circles, valuing the Indian company at just under Rs 10,000 crore.
A new battle
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Essar are the leaders in GSM, but their spectrum is stretched. If Reliance gets its GSM network up and running fast, it can hope to attract several of their customers.
RCom will be able to leverage its existing assets -- 60,000 route kilometers of pan-India fibre optic backbone, 18,000 cellular sites and towers, outlets all over the country -- to bring down the cost of setting up the new network.
Image: A worker adds finishing touches to a large billboard advertising a local mobile phone company. | Photograph: Deshakalyan Chowdhury/AFP/Getty Images
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