The Hindu Business Line : Reliance Info on course to break-even

RELIANCE Infocomm Ltd, which has acquired in excess of six million mobile telephony customers in less than a year of operations, is planning second phase expansion.This would see the launch of host of services including enterprise broadband services and infusion of about Rs 8,000 crore towards capital expenditure.

The President of Reliance Infocomm, Mr Prakash Bajpai, told Business Line that the company has invested about Rs 12,000 crore in the countrywide optical fibre cable network spanning about 90,000 route kilometres and telecom-related infrastructure and expects to invest about Rs 8,000 crore during the year. "Being a large group, fund infusion is not a matter to be concerned about. A large part of this could come through internal accruals. Significantly, in the first year, we are on course to break even."

Asked if IPO was being considered to raise funds, Mr.Bajpai said, "It is too early to consider this."

Referring to the last mile issues, the company has wired up about 30 major cities across the country and would be in a position to provide broadband on demand for about 200,000 high-rise buildings in these cities. "We are set to launch the enterprise broadband services that would address large corporate clients, and small and medium enterprises, the latter offer a great scope for growth. In couple of months, we would be able to roll out services covering voice, voice networking applications, ISDN, data communication and virtual private networks. Significantly, with a network like that of Reliance's, a corporate client can have access to information from anywhere across the length and breadth of the country," Mr.Bajpai explained.

This is supported by integrated Web stores, which are set to go up to about 1000.

"Going forward, we expect pre-paid service to contribute significantly to the growth of the cellular industry." On billing-related complaints, Mr Bajpai said that the company had invested heavily in the billing systems and there is hardly any scope for problem