Rcom to spin off in-house BPO unit into profitable business

Anil Amabani led Reliance Communications (RCom) today announced that the company will spin off a global-size and profitable BPO business...

Anil Amabani led Reliance Communications (RCom) today announced that the company will spin off a global-size and profitable BPO business, leveraging in-house skills and operational capabilities. The announcement was made at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) here.

RCom’s in-house BPO currently has a presence in telecom, BFSI, utilities and entertainment verticals. Ambani, however, presented no other detail of the plan.

Addressing shareholders at the company’s first AGM after being listed on the exchanges, Ambani said that RCom will subsequently cover 23,000 towns or every single Indian habitation with a population of over 1,000 persons. The company will cover almost 100 per cent rail routes in the country, 100 per cent national highways, and 84 per cent of all state highways.

Story continues below this ad

The company’s global business includes customers like Google, Yahoo, AT&T, British Telecom and Deutsche Telecom. Elaborating on RCom’s international operations, Ambani said that the company has more than 1 million retail customers in the US, and claimed that this is the largest for any Indian company across any sector.

RCom has launched virtual international calling and voice content services in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Ambani added that FLAG Telecom has turned around and delivered profits at the net level for the first time since its inception.

FLAG’s connectivity will now expand from 40 to 60 countries across the world, representing over 80 per cent of the global population and 90 per cent of global GDP. The recent Yipes acquisition will transform RCom’s position in the data communications services business in the US and globally.

Yipes has operations in 14 major cities of the US, from New York to Los Angeles, Boston to Houston, Washington to Seattle. It has nearly 1,000 enterprise customers in the US.

Story continues below this ad

RCom will take the Yipes franchise global, leveraging the FLAG network in nearly 40 countries, including India, the Middle East, Asia and Europe, Ambani added. RCom’s enterprise business curently serves more than 800 of the top 1,000 companies in India.

Its wireline network has been expanded to cover almost 5,00,000 buildings, located in 360 business districts in the top 40 cities of India. The company has secured a higher share of the IT and telecom spends of enterprise customers, with a market share of more than 50 per cent in new business.

RCom has been winning repeat orders from premium marquee customers from banking to finance, aviation to hotels, IT to BPO, Ambani added.