|
NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 9: Russia's AFK Sistema has approached India's Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Enterprises (ADAE) to buy out its GSM mobile services business, a leading economic daily reported on Friday.
The financial daily quoted unnamed industry sources as saying a team from the Russian conglomerate, whose earlier efforts to enter the booming Indian cellular market were unfruitful, met officials from the ADAE group.
The ADAE group controls Reliance Telecom Ltd. which offers mobile services based on the GSM platform.
An official from the Mumbai-based group declined comment on the report. Reliance Telecom has 1.54 million users, giving it a miniscule 2.4 per cent share of the 63.1 million strong mobile market.
The ADAE group also runs Reliance Infocomm Ltd., which offers wireless facilities based on rival CDMA technology. Third ranked Reliance Infocomm has 11.13 million mobile customers.
Earlier AFK Sistema had signed a non-binding agreement with India's Aircel Televentures Ltd. to buy a large part of the mid-sized mobile operations, also based on the GSM platform.
But the deal fell through.
India's galloping wireless industry is the world's fastest growing mobile market as call rates as low as 2 US cents are attracting more than 2.7 million new users each month. |