Rcom Voice Services Stop This Month; Customers Can Port Out Till December 31st

In September this year, when we had reported that Anil Ambani led Reliance Communications will merge with Aircel, then it was supposed to be the of the the biggest consolidations in the telecom space.

Both RCom and Aircel had a combined debt of Rs 60,000 crore, and the merger was supposed to solve all the problems.

But destiny had some other plans.

The merger was called off last month, and things looked uncertain regarding their future.

Now, it is clear: Reliance Communication cannot afford to offer voice any more, and has decided to shut down their voice services effective December 1st.

75 million customers of RCom have been given time till December 31st to port out, because after December 1st, their SIM cards would only support 4G services. (only in 8 circles they are operating now)

Jio’s disruption in the telecom sector has finally claimed this big casualty, and it is Mukesh Ambani’s own brother’s telecom company.

Ironical, indeed.

RCom Shuts Down Voice: High Debt Is The Reason?

Reliance Communication has now decided to offer only 2G and  4G services, and shutdown voice services from December 1st.

TRAI has informed all telecom operators regarding this decision, and has issued a circular, which states:

“RCL (Reliance Communications Limited) shall provide only 4G data services to its customers and as a result will discontinue to provide voice services to the subscribers… with effect from 1st December 2017.”

Now, RCom’s 2G and 4G services won’t be pan-India, but only in these 8 telecom circles : Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, UP East and West, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

For customer in rest of India, porting out seems the only viable solution.

Rs 46,000 crore debt of RCom proved to be too much for Anil Ambani, it seems.

RCom-Sistema Merger Is Complete; CDMA Would Be Resumed?

Last year, RCom had abruptly closed their CDMA services, which caused much inconvenience to all users.

However, it seems that RCom may get back into CDMA niche, albeit in another avatar.

Merger of Sistema Shyam Teleservices, which operates under MTS brand, with RCom is now complete, which will help RCom to focus entirely on 4G services, and some form of CDMA services.

In a statement, RCom said,

“The Board of Directors of Reliance Communications Limited, at its meeting held today in Mumbai, took on record the demerger of Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltds telecom business in India, run under the brand name MTS, with the company.”

After this merger, RCom will now be able to use entire telecom business of Sistema in India, which includes 30 MHz of spectrum in 800 and 850 MHz band, the most premium frequencies for providing 4G services.

This will also mean that RCom’s license for 800 and 850 MHz band in 8 telecom circles: Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, UP-West and West Bengal will extend till 2033.

Will RCom be able to survive by providing only 2G and 4G services?

We will keep you updated as we receive more information.