Jio's proposed spectrum acquisition from RCOM would help to close the gap with incumbents

According to a new report by Goldman Sachs Equity Research, Jio's proposed spectrum acquisition from RCOM would help it close the gap with incumbents.

The report said that Jio would then be ahead of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea.

Meanwhile, a report by another firm Moody said that acquisition of RCom's telecom assets has no impact on RIL's Baa2 ratings.

As part of the transaction, Jio will acquire 122.4 MHz of 4G spectrum, 43,000 towers, 178,000 route kilometer of pan India optical fiber network and 248 media convergence nodes. "RIL considers these assets strategic in nature and expects to use them for large-scale roll-out of its wireless and fiber to home and enterprise services," Moody further said.

The acquisition also removes the overhang of RIL's ability to access the telecom infrastructure assets of RCOM following the latter's debt restructuring. It also ensures that RCOM's 4G spectrum does not fall into hands of RIL's competitors.

To recall, Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited announced the signing of the definitive agreement for the acquisition of specified assets of Reliance Communications Limited and its affiliates.

Consequent to the agreement, RJIL or its nominees will acquire assets under four categories - Towers, Optic Fiber Cable Network ("OFC"), Spectrum and Media Convergence Nodes from RCOM and its affiliates. These assets are strategic in nature and are expected to contribute significantly to the large-scale roll-out of wireless and Fiber to Home and Enterprise services by RJIL, it added.

An asset monetization process for RCOM assets was mandated by the lenders of RCOM, who appointed SBI Capital Markets Limited to run the process.

The process is supervised by an independent group of industry experts. RJIL emerged as the successful bidder in the two-stage bidding process.