Reliance Communications is investing Rs 800 crore ($200 million) to enhance its managed global ethernet services footprint for enterprises. The company is also planning to increase its investments in the global enterprise market to Rs 2,000 crore ($500 million).
Global ethernet services provide transmission of data on a real-time and secured manner, and have a market potential of around $30 billion by 2010.
RCom already provides ethernet services to over 1,000 financial institutions such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, New York Stock Exchange, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley among others.
According to sources close to the development, RCom is planning a two-pronged approach to tap the growth potential of the global ethernet-based services market.
In the first stage, the company plans to utilise the 115,000 km of its existing optic fibre backbone that connects over 40 countries.
In the second stage, it would focus on alliances with telecommunication majors in Europe and Asia, they said.
The company, which acquired the global ethernet major Yipes last year for Rs 1,200 crore ($300 million), is also planning to increase its investments in the global enterprise market to Rs 2,000 crore ($500 million).
The Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) investment is in addition to the Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion) the company is investing in the 50,000 km new generation network project.
A company spokesperson said that the company continuously looks at avenues to enhance business opportunities including expansion of its products and services portfolio in existing and new geographies to add further value for its stakeholders.
The company is also in the process of developing ready-to-use and tailor-made global ethernet delivery modules for each of the vertical it plans to focus on, based on the characteristic requirements of each customer segment, in order to minimise the lead time for commercial provisioning of services upon receiving an order.
