The Hindu Business Line : RCom launches GSM service

New service: Mr Anil Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Communications, addressing a press conference in Mumbai on Tuesday.The company announced the launch of its nationwide enhanced GSM service, which will cover 11,000 towns across the country (Report on Page 4).

Our Bureau

Mumbai, Dec. 30 The Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications on Tuesday announced the launch of its nationwide enhanced GSM service.

It will cover 11,000 towns across the country in the initial stage and will span across the nation within a few months. “Starting tomorrow, our GSM service will be available in 11,000 towns in India. We will be doubling it in next few months to over 24,000 towns and six lakh villages. Our GSM service will cover all railway routes and national and state highways,” said Mr Anil Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Communications.

Reliance Communication has spent Rs 10,000 crore for the rollout of the nationwide network of the GSM service. Mr Ambani said the company would spend a few thousand crore more as the incremental investment into the venture. He said that the company’s GSM rollout project is six months ahead of its schedule. “Reliance completes in 15 months what other operators have taken 15 years to complete,” he said.

Wider range

With the launch of its enhanced GSM service, Reliance’s customers will be able to use the widest range of 300 handsets and devices, according to Mr Ambani. “Through our global partnership on both CDMA and GSM services, our customers will now able to roam on more networks globally in more than 200 countries,” he said.

R-Com, which already possesses the nation’s largest CDMA network, will now have a nationwide GSM network also. Mr Ambani hinted at aggressive marketing initiatives on the back of two strong networks. “Through our nationwide GSM launch coupled with our continued focus on CDMA network, we will endeavour to rewrite the rules of the industry,” he said. He made it clear that the two technology platforms will be under an integrated brand.

Mr Ambani did not give details about the call rates and price range of the handsets. “This will be announced in next few days,” he said.

The company also plans to launch its GSM services in Sri Lanka and Uganda, where it has recently obtained licences to operate mobile services.

Orders for handsets

The company sources said that RCom is placing orders with LG, Samsung and Motorola for GSM technology handsets. The entire order is estimated to be worth $ 770 million. “The company is expected to order approximately 7 million handsets from these handset manufacturers. The average cost of each handset will be around Rs 4,000 per piece,” said sources.

On the company’s plans to enter the 3G space, Mr Ambani said the company was looking forward to participating in the 3G bandwidth auction. It plans an investment of between Rs 2,000 to Rs 4,000 crore for its foray into 3G services.

Infra sharing

In response to a question, he said there would be some announcements in the next few months regarding sharing of telecom infrastructure with other service providers. The company was also open to raising capital for its telecom infrastructure arm, Reliance Infratel, in 2009.