Reliance JioInfocomm set to join hands with Bharti Airtel

Reliance Industries Limited(RIL) is leaving no stone unturned for the launch of its 4G services under the brand- Reliance JioInfocomm. This yet to be launched high speed and voice services over fourth generation telecom networks led by Mukesh Ambani is already setting new trends. Reliance JioInfocomm has inked a pact with BhartiAirtel to use the latter’s 3,100 km submarine cable i2i connecting Chennai to Singapore.

Reliance will have the sole privilege to use one of the eight fibre pairs of the cable which has a capacity of 8.4 terabits per second (tbps). One tbps can support up to 250,000 units of high definition video conferencing simultaneously across the country. It is suggestive that the capacity is magnanimous that is a pre-requisite for the launch of high speed 4G long term evolution (LTE) services. There is a total capacity of 30 tbpsavailable on the four submarine cables on the route from India to Singapore. However, currently less than one tbps of capacity is being used. This connection to Singapore will help Reliance JioInfocomm to set up future routes to US, Hong Kong and Japan. Experts say that lone connectivity to Singapore won’t suffice the need of web content, as Singapore only hosts 0.3 percent of the total web content.

“Bharti has a submarine cable capacity which is not fully utilized and Reliance can access it without laying its network. This deal might not have any immediate impact, but the deal is future-proof”, said Rishi Tejpal, principle researcher at Gartner.

According to Reliance, this cable will provide direct access and ultra-fast connectivity to major centres over Asia Pacific region. Also, it will help RIL to meet the bandwidth demand and provide ultra fast data experience to its users. The original amount has not been officially declared yet. However there are speculations that the deal would be around $25 million. This pact will accentuate Reliance’s future sign-ups to secure international connectivity for its telecom venture.

Apart from this deal, previously Reliance has already signed a deal of Rs 1,200 crore with Reliance Communications to use its fibre-optic cable network spread across India. It is also in talks to use the capacity of 56,000 towers across the country. These steps will cumulatively speed up the launch of RIL’s 4G services and save on extra costs on infrastructure too.

RIL Finds More Natural Gas KG-D6 Block

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has found natural gas in the first exploration well in Krishna-Godavari Basins located in the eastern coast of the country. A huge amount of natural gas was discovered in the first exploration well in the gas fields in the KG-D6 blocks which are being deepened further to accentuate the production of natural gas.

The demand of production of natural gas was increasing in many industries like –fertilizers, power stations, etc. To suffice this demand, RIL had taken up the task to deepen the existing blocks as well as to explore new blocks for natural gas and petroleum. It was during this process in the MJ-1 exploration well on the Dhirubhai-1 and Dhirubhai-3 gas blocks in the KG-D6 basins that natural gas has spurred out before the drilling could reach its target depth. This well is located exactly beneath D-1 and D-3 blocks and will be deepened by 2 kms. This drilling process will continue till this weekend and then the natural gas samples will be acquired and sent for testing.

Also, this well is targeting a Mesozoic synriftclastic reservoir. This reservoir is also being targeted by a separate MA oil and gas field too. According to the pre-drill research carried out by Reliance, the gross prospective resource of 819 billion cubic feet of gas and 56 million barrels of liquids were estimated. The exploration well MJ-1 will also be helpful in probing the characteristics of Mesozoic synriftclastic reservoir.

RIL received the permission from the government to explore the KG basins for more natural gas and petroleum. The idea for exploration was proposed before one year. RIL holds a 60 percent partnership with UK’s BP Plc and Niko oil companies with about 30 percent and 10 percent of interest respectively. In the coming five years, RIL also plans to invest $5 billion for further exploration of these gas fields. The investments will be used to expand the water handling capacity and compression facility at D1 and D3 fields, additional gas production and compressor modification of both the fields- MA and MJ-1.

The vision of MukeshAmbani, the owner of RIL, behind this exploration is to make India import independent and self sufficient. He wants to balance the equation of demand –supply of natural gas and petroleum of the country with the produce of KG basins only.

Reliance Retail To Come Up With Five Cash & Carry Stores

Reliance Retail, the retail chain by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is planning to come up with five new cash and carry stores in the next quarter across the country. The new locations have not been announced yet. The announcement came at the opening of its second Cash & Carry store called “Reliance Market” here in Ahmadabad. At present, there are two such stores operational by Reliance Retail, one is in Bangalore and another is in Ahmadabad.

Randall Guttery, CEO of Reliance Market, a subdivision of Reliance Fresh Limited, said “Right now, we have five additional stores that are coming out of the ground. They will come up in the next quarter.” According to the speculations, two stores will be set up in north, two in the west and one in the south of the country. Guttery did not divulge any further information casting competitive reasons. A cash & carry stores serves the professional customers instead of end-customers. This concept of cash & carry stores is based on self-service and bulk buying by registered customers. The customers of these stores are either from hotels, caterers, traders and other business groups. The customers in this situation has to make all the arrangements for purchasing and transporting the material, and it also removes the intervention caused by middle-men. Cash & Carry stores smoothens the business for both the parties involved.

Reliance Retail is currently focusing on making this new format of cash and carry stores work in the Indian retail market scenario and understanding the customer requirements. The idea is to slowly penetrate into the market. “We will first go slow. Once we make it work, then we will grow fast,” said Guttery.

A cash & carry store is affiliated with local traders and business owners. Reliance Market in Ahmadabad has over 108,000 business partner members which include roughly 17,000 local kirana traders. This store is doing really great and is “magnificently successful” as Guttery quoted.

In the Reliance Market located in Bangalore, there is a collection of over 8,500 products that comprise of both-food and non-food products. Till date, 85,000 local business traders have enrolled with the store. This store caters to the needs of to all sizes of business owners whether it is a local kirana trader, a small business owner, or a hotel or restaurant owner. Reliance Market brings the regional, national, and international brands under one roof at affordable wholesale prices.

Apart from this Reliance Retail is supposed to receive an investment of over 3,800 crore from RIL for its rapid growth and expansion. It is successful because it gives better returns to both manufacturers as well as consumers in quality and quantity aspects, simultaneously.