Business Standard | January 4, 2011 | Mehul Shah
Global telecom equipment makers Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and Huawei are in the fray to supply broadband gear to Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), India’s most valued company in terms of market capitalisation, for its re-entry into the sector.
In June, billionaire Mukesh Ambani-promoted RIL bought a 95 per cent stake in Infotel Broadband, the only company to win licence for broadband wireless spectrum in all the 22 circles, for Rs 4,800 crore.
According to telecom executives familiar with the matter, RIL is testing broadband equipment of the three vendors, based on long-term evolution (LTE) technology. “We expect the company to finalise the vendor in the next one-two months for broadband equipment and roll out the services in the next six-nine months,” said an executive at one of the three companies on condition of anonymity. To begin, RIL was likely to roll out the services in major cities, he said. However, it is still not clear whether RIL will choose a single vendor or split the order, according to sources. The size of the order could not be ascertained.
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