Reliance Industries is pouring an extra 150 billion rupees ($2.21 billion) into its wireless division Reliance Jio Infocomm via a share allocation.
Reliance Jio will issue 15 billion new shares at 10 rupees apiece to existing shareholders, the company said in a stock market filing.
Bloomberg quotes analysts speculating that Reliance Jio will use the proceeds to fund further investment in its pan-India 4G network as well as the capex requirements of preparing for the imminent launch of 4G services.
Reliance Jio previously announced plans to launch services in December, but scaled back these ambitions and only launched free trial services for employees, delaying the commercial debut.
The operator's total capital expenditure has now exceeded 1 trillion rupees, and it has been over five years since it secured a pan-India LTE license.
Reliance Jio this week announced it has entered a long-anticipated 4G partnership with Reliance Communications covering the sharing and trading of spectrum as well as intra-circle roaming agreements.
Source: http://www.telecomasia.net/content/reliance-jio-raise-extra-22b-4g-rollout