Telecom Diary: Reliance’s global telecom ambitions, while Vodafone Idea continues to be in deep water

Reliance Industries is contemplating an offer for T-Mobile Netherlands which if succeeded will be the first global telecom expansion for India’s biggest group.

The group’s chairman Mukesh Ambani has previously mentioned that he wants to expand Reliance’s digital unit Jio Platforms outside India with its end-to-end 5G stack, which includes both equipment and software solutions. So, there could be some synergies between Jio Platforms and Reliance’s plan for T-Mobile Netherlands.

During the pandemic last year, Jio Platforms had raised over $20 billion from investors including Facebook.

However, analysts are not convinced. A report from UBS said Reliance Jio Infocomm benefitted from relatively unique circumstances in the India market, which might not necessarily be replicable in Europe.