Reliance to go pre-paid

NEW DELHI: Reliance Infocomm Ltd, India's largest mobile services provider, plans to launch a pre-paid facility for its customers, a top company official said.

Bombay-based Reliance Infocomm, the telecoms unit of the petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries Ltd, has more than six million customers for its post-paid CDMA-based mobile services across the country.

But rivals such as Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd, the second largest provider of mobile services, have nearly two-thirds of their subscriber base using pre-paid services.

"Our preparations are complete," Prakash Bajpai, president of Reliance Infocomm, told reporters on the sidelines of an industry seminar.

"We are definitely going to launch pre-paid services and hopefully very soon."

Bajpai gave no details on tariffs plans or the number of customers he expects the pre-paid facility to garner.

India has more than 28 million mobile users and more than 75 percent use the GSM format. The number is expected to surge to at least 100 million by 2005, making the sector one of the fastest growing markets globally.

© Reuters