Reliance Industries (RIL) today said it is the process of finalising agreements with leading technology players and service providers to offer high speed broadband wireless services in the country, but did not give any specific timeframe.
"RIL is in the process of setting up a world-class broadband wireless network using state-of-the-art technologies and finalising the arrangement with leading global technology players, service providers and infrastructure providers, application developers, device manufacturers and others to help usher the 4G revolution into India," the company said in a statement announcing its third quarter results.
However, the company did not divulge the timeframe for pan-India roll-out of its broadband services.
In 2010, Mukesh Ambani-led RIL had forayed into the telecom arena with a bang, announcing the acquisition of Infotel, which had emerged as the sole winner of pan-India broadband spectrum, for Rs 4,800 crore.
In June last year, Ambani had said that the services would be in the domain of education, healthcare, entertainment, financial services and government-citizen interfaces.
RIL, valued by the market at $50.2 billion, said it had cash in hand of Rs 74,539 crore at the end of December. Its outstanding debt at the end of the quarter stood at Rs 74,503 crore, compared to Rs 67,397 crore as of March 31, 2011.
Earlier during the month, RIL and Network 18 group had joined hands for a multi-layered deal under which the Mukesh Ambani-led corporate giant would sell a part of its interest in the Eenadu TV channels and would also fund promoters of the media group.
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RIL did not specify the exact financial details of various transactions. Network 18 group company TV18 in a separate statement had said that its board has approved an outlay of up to Rs 2,100 crore for the proposed acquisition of ETV assets.
Broadband and broadband-enabled digital services are the next big leap forward in the digital transformation of our knowledge economy, Ambani had said.