India's Reliance Industries is likely to buy more than $1 billion worth of fourth-generation (4G) telecoms network gear from Samsung Electronics, the Economic Times reported on Saturday.
Reliance's talks with Samsung are at an advanced stage for supply of LTE network gear and that the two companies have also discussed potential bundling of 4G handsets and devices supply deal within the contract, the paper cited unnamed executives familiar with the matter saying.
Reliance's Infotel Broadband unit is the only company to have 4G permits for all of India's 22 telecoms zones. The company won permits in a 2010 state auction, but is yet to launch the high-speed Internet services.
A Reliance Industries spokesman, when contacted by Reuters, said Infotel was in discussions with "numerous potential partners", but declined to comment on specifics. A spokesman for Samsung's India unit also declined comment.