Reliance Communications (Rcom) on Monday said the company would welcome the entry of Reliance Industries into the telecom sector. “If there is a responsible player going to expand the data pie, it's a very good news,” Syed Safawi, president & chief executive of RCom’s wireless business unit said.
While its peers reported muted traffic/revenue growth numbers due to a seasonally weak quarter, RCom registered a 2.1 per cent and 1.6 per cent sequential growth in wireless revenue and traffic.
The company said it would be able to maintain revenues per minute at 44-45p on the back of reducing free minutes on the network and focusing on paid minutes. The company is after the high margin, non-voice segment, now a fifth of revenues, as well as third-generation (3G) services to improve average revenue per user. It has 2.1 million active 3G users.
While there are improvements at the operational level, it has a $1.1-billion foreign currency loan payment due in March 2012. Though the company says it will look at internal accruals, analysts believe a part of the money is likely to come from debt. Leasing of the towers should help it improve their utilisation and its revenue.
RCom reported a 43 per cent drop in net profit to Rs 252 crore in the quarter, the ninth straight drop.