Top 10: 3 - Reliance: A Blessing In Disguise

Change is the only constant in the world, and it applies to Reliance as well.
The company went through lot of changes last year. The new management control
was a result of the dispute between the Ambani brothers. This is followed by
restructuring within the company and massive branding exercise. As a result, the
company a got new name and a new logo. More importantly, the company got listed
on the bourses after de-merger. The purpose was to bring different telecom
holdings under one umbrella.

The telecom business of Reliance got the new name-Reliance Communications and
the operations were divided into three divisions-wireless, global, and
broadband. The company has an overall subscriber base of over 21 mn that include
individual, enterprise, and carrier customers. Also, Reliance was engaged in the
marketing and distribution of wireless handsets.

Reliance generated revenue to the tune of Rs 11,288 crore, a growth of 110%
as against Rs 5,387 crore in FY 2004-05. Wireless contributed around Rs 6,673
crore, global brought in Rs 3,403 crore and broadband contributed Rs 1,002 crore.

The company launched its international call service-Reliance India-and
has around 5.5 lakh active customers with usage accounting for around 40% of
total retail market calls from the US to India. The company offered national and
international network infrastructure through FLAG that directly connects to 28
countries from the East coast of the US, to Europe, the Middle East, India,
South and East Asia, through to Japan. The company is currently, constructing
the FALCON cable system, which will directly connect 12 countries in the Gulf
region, and North Africa to Europe and Asia.

The company launched its enterprise broadband services in the first half of
2005, focusing initially on the top 30 cities in India. In these cities, it
leveraged on its existing metro fiber optic networks to establish direct
building connectivity on Net. It currently, has over one-lakh buildings directly
connected to the network and over 2.5 lakh access lines. Reliance is currently,
conducting trials for IPTV services in more than 10,000 premises and plan full
commercial launch later in the current financial year.

The company has a backbone of retail and is present in over 1,500
company-owned and operated Reliance WebWorld stores in around 700 cities.

The company had 17.31 mn wireless customers on its network as on March 31,
2006. Out of the total wireless customers, 15.41 mn were on the CDMA platform
and 1.9 mn were on the GSM platform.