Reliance invested Rs 8,100 crore in Infocomm in FY04

Reliance Industries (RIL) has invested Rs 8,100 crore in Reliance Infocomm in the last financial year (FY04).

The company subscribed to 162 crore, 10 per cent cumulative redeemble/optionally convertible preference shares of (Re 1each) of Reliance Infocomm, which has licences to offer telecom services in 20 circles. Meanwhile, the basic service business of the company was demerged from Reliance Telecom last year.

RIL has invested around Rs 12,000 crore thus far in Infocomm, of which Rs 8,100 crore is in the form of preference capital that is redeemable as debt, or can be converted into equity. The balance amount is a direct equity infusion.

RIL will not invest any further in Infocomm. "No incremental investment is envisaged in Infocomm," a company offical said.

Reliance Infocomm reported cash profit in the very first year of operations. Meanwhile, Reliance Info plans to hikes its capacity from the current 7 million subscribers to 40 million subscribers by the year-end.

It plans roll-out its network in an additional 3,800 towns and plans to have a presence in 5,000 towns by March '05. The company currently has presence in 1,100 cities and towns across 20 circles.

Currently, Reliance Info occupies more than 20 per cent of the incoming international long distance market. Reliance Infocomm plans to launch enterprise broadband solutions will be available in 200 cities initially. Infocomm also plans to provide video-on-demand by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Reliance Infocomm will soon start marketing a special uplinking solution for audio-visual media houses through its WebWorld network. The solution, which is free at present, will become a pay service.

Called the digital electronic news gathering (DENG) service, the solution permits audio-video media companies to transfer live and streaming video from locations across the country to their central studios.