Anil Ambani: RCom, Jio have virtually merged; our voice is shared

It seems the two Ambani brothers, Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani, have forgotten their past differences and a virtual merger of their respective companies, Reliance Communications and Reliance Jio, has happened.

During the annual general meeting, RCom Chairman Anil Ambani said two committed brothers were working towards fulfilling Dhirubhai Ambani’s dreams.

"As far as our 100 million customers are concerned, as far as our 1 million retailers are concerned, as far as our employees are concerned, and as far as our vendors and partners are concerned, there has already been a virtual merger of the two organisations (RCom and Jio),” Anil Ambani told shareholders.

Ambani said, "Our spectrum is shared, our network is shared, our fibre is shared, our towers are shared, our voice is shared.”
Earlier, Mukesh Ambani also maintained that the businesses were separate but the brothers had overcome all their past issues at the family level.

RCom and Reliance Jio have been working in tandem from beginning of this year. RCom ran a pilot offering 4G data dongles worth Rs 3,999 at Rs 899 in April this year. The service offered 4G at the price of 3G, but the 4G was riding on the Jio network under the sharing agreement.

In the past, when the family division happened, the telecom business and the power and financial services businesses went to Anil Ambani, while the oil and petrochemicals business remained with Mukesh Ambani.

They signed a non-compete pact, which was scrapped by mutual agreement in 2010.

Since then, Mukesh Ambani has been foraying into telecom sector by buying a company that had acquired pan-India 4G airwaves in an auction. The acquired company was subsequently renamed Reliance Jio Infocomm.