Reliance Jio to merge Infotel with itself

In order to provide national and international long distance services under a uniform license, Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) is planning to merge Infotel Telecom (ITL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the former, with itself, according to media reports.

Infotel Telecom has moved the Mumbai High Court for its nod for the merger with the holding company, Reliance Jio informed DoT.

"In view of RJIL holding unified license having authorization of all services including NLD and ILD services, we wish to carry out NLD and ILD business under a single license. It is, therefore, proposed to consolidate ITL and RJIL into one single company through amalgamation," the two companies said in a letter dated May 23.

While Infotel has licenses to offer national long distance (NLD) and international long distance (ILD) services, Jio holds licenses to offer high speed data and voice services across India through airwaves in the 2300 Mhz band.

Recently, RJI also bagged spectrum in the 1800 Mhz band in 14 circles.

As per rules, a unified license permits a holder to offer telephony and data services under a single permit.

In 2010, Reliance Jio had acquired 95% stake in Infotel Telecom for Rs 4,800 crore. It is only company in India to offer 4G services across all circles as it owns 20 Mhz of broadband spectrum in the 2300 Mhz band.

After paying an amount of Rs 1,658 crore, Jio had secured the unified license from DoT in last October which enabled it to offer voice, data and other services under a single license. But the move was challenged by other telecom companies in the Supreme Court as earlier a telco had to obtain separate licenses for separate services.