Mukesh-Anil : What the brotherhood could bring next?

In a firstever official partnership with Reliance Communications post the re-entry of Mukesh Ambani into telecom business, Reliance Jio has partnered with Anil Ambani's RCom to share the latter's 1,20,000 km optic fibre network across the country. The company said in a statement to Bombay Stock Exchange.

The statement also mentions that this is the first in "an intended comprehensive framework of business cooperation" between the two companies, which means there are more such agreements or partnerships in the pipeline. Wisely, it makes a perfect business sense for both the brothers and for both companies.

Then what could be the next series of partnerships based on? and what are the areas the two brothers can get together and play a team game? They have plenty.

On the backbone front, RCom has a large inter-city long distance network with over 190,000 route kilometers of ducted fiber optic cables. Also, the company has an asset of over 25,000 route kilometers of ducted fiber optic cables installed in the leading cities in India. Simultaneously, the company also has metro fiber optic networks in 44 cities in India, with close to 1,134,000 buildings connected.

With respect to cable network, India has around 94 mn homes cable connections-of which 88 mn are analog and 6 mn are digital connections. Initially, RIL can focus on 6 mn digital connections for providing internet access and IP-TV services. Also, RIL can plan to use cable network more as a franchisee for their services, as they have a large base of customers and they are in direct touch with them every month.

RIL can also use Reliance Infratel 58,000 towers for loading their eNodeB sites as presently they have a tenancy ratio of 1.74. The company can also leverage 45,000 towers of BSNL, as the company is in the process of renting it out to other service providers. All of this will help them in faster rollout of broadband services. This will only happen once they finalize the infrastructure partners.

On international bandwidth front, the company can leverage Reliance Globalcom, as the company serves over 2,100 enterprises, 200 carriers, and 2.5 mn retail customers in 163 countries. The company also owns the world's largest private undersea cable system spanning 65,000 km with a robust global service delivery platform connecting key markets like India, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and the US.

The company can also leverage on Reliance Entertainment network as the company focuses on internet & new media, film entertainment (film production, distribution, and exhibition) and broadcast channel featuring locally relevant content around humor, Bollywood, movies, and music. The company has also built an impressive film production bouquet in Hindi, English, and other Indian languages. The company is also also associated with TV programming through Reliance Synergy. Even Reliance MediaWorks would prove handy for digital mastering.