Jio recently said it will make a cumulative investment of $25 billion in the 5G field
India’s largest telecom operator, Reliance Jio Infocomm, is seeking to raise up to $2 billion in loans with French bank BNP Paribas as lead arranger of the initiative that will help fund the purchase of 5G network gear from Swedish vendor Ericsson, local newspaper The Economic Times reported.
“BNP Paribas will provide $1.9-$2 billion over a nine-month period during the course of which Jio will be paying back Ericsson, BNP and some other banks,” the Indian paper reported, citing a source with knowledge of the matter.
The report also said that Swedish export credit agency EKN recently provided a $2.2 billion cover to Reliance Jio Infocomm. This cover will protect Ericsson and the international banks from potential risks.
“The $2.2-billion cover from EKN will likely reduce Jio’s overall 5G gear funding costs as global lenders and the 5G equipment supplier involved in such a large deal will be more comfortable,” another person aware of the development said.
Jio recently said it will make a cumulative investment of $25 billion in the 5G field, of which $11 billion was spent on acquiring 5G airwaves last year.
The telco is currently working with Nordic vendors Ericsson and Nokia for its 5G network deployments.
Reliance Jio Infocomm recently said it expects to complete the national rollout of 5G by the end of this year. The company noted that its 5G offering is already present in over 96% of the census towns of the Asian country.
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The carrier already reached 450 million subscribers, of which 50 million have already migrated to 5G.
Reliance Jio Infocomm has been rapidly expanding its 5G network using Standalone (SA) architecture since October 2022. The telco has already deployed its 5G service in 6,258 cities across 36 states in India, according to the carrier’s website.
Reliance Jio had previously secured a mix of wireless spectrum for 5G across the 700 MHz, 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands. Jio is the only Indian operator with the 700 MHz low-band spectrum.
Reliance Jio Infocomm also confirmed it will launch its fixed wireless access (FWA) offering on September 19.
Jio has already started testing the device in some cities where its 5G services are fully operational. The devices have reportedly been sent to selected users, including some of the company’s employees, for testing, according to local press reports.
Reliance Jio Infocomm recently said it has created a dedicated 5G network slice for the provision of its 5G fixed wireless access solution.