Overview
Reliance Communications Limited (RCom) is an Indian telecommunications company headquartered in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra. Part of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (Reliance ADA Group), the company historically provided wireless, wireline, broadband, enterprise, and submarine cable services across India and overseas markets. Once among India's largest mobile operators, RCom wound down its wireless consumer business in late 2017 and subsequently entered insolvency proceedings.
Key facts
| Type | Public company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Headquarters | Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| Parent group | Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group |
| Chairman | Anil Ambani |
| Listings | BSE, NSE |
| Key subsidiary | Reliance Globalcom (Global Cloud Xchange) |
Background
Reliance Communications traces its origins to the telecom initiatives launched by the Reliance group under Dhirubhai Ambani, with mobile services rolled out in the early 2000s under the Reliance Infocomm brand. Following the demerger of the Reliance group between brothers Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani in 2005, the telecom business was placed under the Reliance ADA Group and subsequently rebranded as Reliance Communications.
The company built one of the country's earliest large-scale CDMA networks and later added GSM services. Through its international arm, Reliance Globalcom (operating as Global Cloud Xchange), it owned and operated one of the world's largest privately held submarine cable systems, including the FLAG (Fiber-Optic Link Around the Globe) network acquired in 2004.
Timeline
- 2002 – Reliance Infocomm launches mobile telephony services in India, popularising low-cost CDMA handsets.
- 2004 – Acquisition of FLAG Telecom, giving the group a global undersea cable footprint.
- 2005 – Demerger of the Reliance group; telecom business moves to the Anil Ambani–led ADA Group.
- 2006 – Reliance Communications listed on Indian stock exchanges following corporate restructuring.
- 2008 – Launch of GSM services, expanding beyond the original CDMA platform.
- 2016 – Announcement of a proposed merger of RCom's wireless business with Aircel; the deal subsequently fell through.
- 2017 – Shutdown of 2G and CDMA voice services; exit from the consumer mobile business.
- 2019 – Admitted to corporate insolvency resolution under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Mumbai.
Business segments
- Wireless – Mobile voice and data services on CDMA and GSM networks (discontinued for consumers in 2017).
- Enterprise – Connectivity, data centre, and managed network services for businesses in India.
- Global / Submarine cable – International long-distance and undersea cable capacity through Global Cloud Xchange and the FLAG network.
- Home / Broadband – Fixed-line voice and broadband under the Reliance brand.
Significance
Reliance Communications played a defining role in India's mobile revolution of the 2000s, particularly through aggressive pricing of handsets and tariffs that helped expand mobile access beyond metropolitan markets. Its later financial distress, debt restructuring, and insolvency proceedings became one of the most prominent cases in the Indian telecom sector, reflecting the broader consolidation that followed the entry of Reliance Jio in 2016.
Related topics
- Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group
- Anil Ambani
- Reliance Jio
- Telecommunications in India
- Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016
- National Company Law Tribunal
- FLAG Telecom
References
- Wikidata entry: Q729342
- Filings and disclosures of Reliance Communications Limited with the Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange of India.
- Orders of the National Company Law Tribunal, Mumbai Bench, in the corporate insolvency resolution proceedings of Reliance Communications.