AT&T to acquire stake in Reliance Jio Infocomm

AT&T to acquire stake in Reliance Jio InfocommUS based telecom service provider, AT&T has said that it is planning to acquire a 25 per cent stake in Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd that is controlled by Mukesh Ambani.

AT&T is expected to pay about $3.5 billion for acquiring a quarter of the telecom company to gain an entry into the Indian market. Reliance Jio Infocomm, which is working to roll out its 4G / TD-LTEnet work in the country, will now be valued at $14 billion. This will be one of the largest FDI inflows into the country and will be AT&T's second attempt to expand its presence in the Indian market after it exited form Birla AT&T Tata venture that is now known as Idea Cellular.

Reliance Jio is looking to offer voice and data services I based on its 4G network in the country. It is the only player in the market with the capability to launch4G services across the country because it has licences to 20 MHz pan-India spectrum. Reliance Jio had acquired pan-Indian BWA spectrum it acquired in 2010. The company was earlier known as Infotel Broadband and it was renamed after it was acquired by RIL.