Reliance Industries to launch 4G telecoms services in 2015

By Aman Shah

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Reliance Industries Ltd will start offering next year fourth-generationn (4G) telecommunications services, its chairman and India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, said on Wednesday, as the energy major seeks to boost revenue from new business areas.

Reliance, India's third-most valuable company, gets most of its revenue from its sprawling energy empire. It has expanded into new businesses like retail, telecommunications and media in recent years as growth in its core energy business slows.

Reliance made a return to telecoms in 2010 by acquiring the only company that had won nationwide 4G airwaves in a government auction, but has yet to start services as it builds the business on an unproven and still-developing technology.

On Wednesday, Ambani told shareholders that Reliance was planning an investment of 700 billion rupees ($11.7 billion) in the telecoms business and would launch services in phases across India in 2015.

"The objective is to ensure that everything that we offer is future-proof and world-class," he told Reliance's annual shareholder meeting. "Limited field trials with our initial set of services for the broad band services are already underway."

Reliance plans to invest more than 1.8 trillion rupees ($30 billion) over a three-year period that ends in March 2016 across all its businesses, Ambani said. Last year, the company had announced plans to invest 1.5 trillion rupees over three years.

($1 = 59.7000 rupees)

(Additional reporting by Nivedita Bhattacharjee; Writing by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Matt Driskill)