Mukesh Ambani is the 9th richest man in the World. His net worth of US $22.7 billion equals the GDP of Estonia, and he lives in a weird looking house that is also said to be the most expensive in the world. Courtesy of his wealth, almost an entire nation of a billion and a half has been enjoying free high speed internet and calls for the last few month. Certainly, there’s no space for half measures. So now, after pumping in nearly $25 billion (Roughly Rs.1.66 lakh crore) into his communication venture Reliance Jio, he plans to inject another loose change of $4.4 billion (Approx Rs.30,000 crore), in order to boost network coverage.
According to an exchange filing, Reliance Jio Infocomm, a unit of Ambani’s Reliance Industries, plans to raise $4.4 billion from a rights offer and will use the proceeds to enhance its network capacity. A new player in the mobile network arena in India, Jio has been adding 600,000 new users a day to its 72.4 million subscriber base, within four months after starting operations.
It has caused existing network operators to rewrite their business plans, where Vodafone has already written down the value of its local business unit. Rivals have gone to court, calling Jio’s business practices of offering freebies as unfair, where a national tribunal is set to hear a case February 1, after Bharti Airtel complained the freebies are killing the industry. In response to Jio’s free services, Airtel, Vodafone and Idea have slashed their rates by almost half and included free data in their prepaid and postpaid plans.
