Mega deal between Ambanis to help Reliance Jio take on Bharti Airtel

Reliance Jio is expected to intensify its fight with rival telco Bharti Airtel as the Mukesh Ambani-owned company buys out key assets from Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications (RCom). In fact, with this acquisition, the Jio-Bharti battle will not just be limited to mobile telephony but will extend to the fibre to home space (FTTH) too. 

While Jio is focused on disrupting the market next year once again with the launch of high-speed FTTH with its offer of broadband and TV as well, Bharti Airtel is also planning to aggressively expand this business, sources said. Bharti already has over 3 million fixed line cum broadband customers in



95 cities across India and offers IPTV (internet protocol TV). Its fibre is spread over 250,000 km across the country and internationally. 

But by acquiring RCom’s fibre assets (about 178,000 km), Jio will have a much larger network, controlling more than 428,000 of inter and intra-city fibre across the country. This, sources in the know said, would enable Jio to launch its FTTH in over 30 cities across the country next year. 

Jio has also mapped out a plan to address 100 million TV households across cities to ensure dense fibre penetration and last-mile connectivity.