Mumbai: Reliance Industries has initiated talks to acquire the leading Cable and Internet operator, Hathway Cable & Datacom, in a bid to speed up the commercial launch of its GigaFiber high-speed home broadband services.
According to industry sources acquisition of Hathway would add immediate momentum to Jio’s broadband plans as it would bring in more than 11 million digital cable TV subscribers and 800,000 broadband users, out of which 90% users have high-speed (over 40 mbps) plans.
The average revenue per user (ARPU) of Hathway’s Broadband business was around Rs 710 per month, in the June quarter.
Sources also reveal that RIL is aggressively pursuing for the deal, while the deal is still at an “exploratory stage”. It’s too early to say if the deal will go through or not.
In September last year, RIL was in advanced talks with Sameer Manchanda-promoted DEN Network for a possible acquisition. However, the talks didn’t materialize and apparently, the RIL management decided to go solo on the launch of GigaFiber under its Reliance Jio Infocomm unit.
The latest development comes at a stage when Reliance Jio Infocomm is facing resistance from local cable operators (LCOs) in extending crucial lastmile connectivity in key markets, subsequently, the rollout plans of GigaFiberis getting delayed.
