The Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio Infocomm, the 4G venture of Reliance Industries (RIL), has signed a major Base Transceiver Station (BTS) with Samsung.
Hindu Business Line reported that Reliance Jio, which is planning to launch 4G services on the TD-LTE technologies early next year, is sourcing 70,000 BTS in a deal valued at an estimated Rs 7,500 crore.
Of these, 14,000 stations (20 percent) have already been handed over to Reliance Jio Infocomm, at the start of December.
Apart from building up the necessary infrastructure needed to ensure a hassle-free 4G launch in March 2014, Reliance Jio is also expected to make an entry in the 2G space.
This will be the first LTE deal for Samsung in India.
Both Samsung and Reliance Jio did not confirm the development officially.
Samsung had earlier signed a devices deal with Reliance Jio and the duo was working together on a sub-Rs 5,000 LTE handset. The new deal was to substantially bring down the prices of LTE devices, but had hit a rough patch over differences on pricing of the handsets.
Over the next two months, officials said, Reliance Jio is to start rolling out its 4G in Guwahati and in the North East via Kolkata. Samsung is to supply 1,400 BTS or 2 percent of the total stations to this region.
On Tuesday, Reliance Jio announced a infrastructure and services sharing deal with Bharti Airtel.
