Reliance Communications (RCOM) and the Indian telecom business of Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd (SSTL), MTS India, recently entered into discussions for a potential merger of the two companies through a stock swap. Assuming that the merger does go through, let's take a look at where the combined entity stands in the Indian telecom industry at present: - As of April 2015, MTS India has 8.84 million active mobile connections, while Reliance Communications has 109.8 million active mobile connections. - The combined entity, with 118.64 million active mobile connections will be the fourth largest telco in the country, behind Airtel with 226 million active mobile connections, Vodafone with 184 million active mobile connections, and Idea with 161.4 million active mobile connections (pdf) (as of March 31, 2015). Incidentally, even without the merger, RCOM is currently the fourth largest telco in India, in terms of active mobile connections. Mobile Internet The debate over net neutrality and the subsequent argument initiated by telcos regarding decline in revenue from traditional sources not compensating revenue from data services has meant that for every telco their mobile Internet customers have become vital. Where do RCOM and MTS India stand: - MTS India reported it has a mobile subscriber base of 8.9 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 (Q4-Fy15), though it's not clear how many of these are active mobile connections. It reported a blended mobile Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) of Rs 127. - On the other hand, RCOM reported 33.7 million mobile Internet connections for Q4-FY15, and its…
