Reliance Jio to invest Rs 30,000 crore to enhance network coverage

Reliance Industries will spend another Rs 30,000 crore to enhance the network coverage and capacity of Reliance Jio Infocomm, taking the total investment in the telecoms venture to more than Rs 2 lakh crore.

RIL board in its meeting on Friday decided to make the rights issue to raise up to Rs 30,000 crore, it said in the notice. The telecom unit will offer 600 crore, 9% non¬cumulative optionally convertible preference shares at Rs 50 each, including a premium of Rs 40. Reliance has already invested Rs 1.71 lakh crore in the unit that launched commercial services on September 5 and is quickly expanding subscriber base, fuelled by initial free data and voice offers.

Jio’s launch has disrupted the market, as rivals like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular were also forced to cut prices, even as the industry returned to a phase of margin denting price war. The company has built a next generation data network with 4G technology and created an ecosystem comprising network, devices, applications and content. Within four months of the launch, it has signed up 72.4 million subscribers.