Reliance rolls out WLL services in the country

BANGALORE: India’s largest business conglomerate, the Reliance Group, will launch its infocom division Reliance Infocomm Limited on December 28, 2002, marking the birthday of its founder chairman, Dhirubhai Ambani. Reliance Infocomm, under the leadership of Mukesh Ambani, has created a digital infrastructure of a 60,000 kilometers terabit capacity optic fiber network covering over 600 cities.

"The architecture and functionality of this network is dynamic to keep pace with the evolution of technology in the future", said, Reliance Industries Limited, Chairman and Managing Director, Mukesh Ambani. The company plans to progressively expand its optic fiber network and eventually cover 116,000 km, to connect all 640,000 villages and 2,500 towns and cities in India.

Reliance Infocomm will offer revolutionary, data, video and value-added services at a cost affordable by all, in the largest and most complex rollout in the history of the information technology and communication sector worldwide.

Ambani, added, "Reliance Infocomm will ensure that by 2003, India has the most modern information and communication infrastructure in the world. An infrastructure for connecting citizens, networking communities, improving the quality of life, building intellectual capital, enhancing productivity, creating new businesses, building partnerships, and, above all, for taking India to global leadership in the knowledge era."

Reliance Infocomm is ready to start services in three concrete phases, first, with a mobile revolution, in the form of the Reliance IndiaMobile service through a nationwide wireless network that will reach out to 90 percent of India’s population and eventually to every Indian. This revolution will enable every individual talk, learn, shop, bank, transact, entertain and be informed, while on the move.

Second, in mid 2003, with an enterprise netway revolution by providing 100 mbps Ethernet links to every desktop and device to half a million-enterprise buildings initially and eventually to 10 million buildings. This revolution will empower every enterprise by making transactions efficient, functions seamless and new economic opportunities abundant.

Third, in end 2003, with a consumer convergence revolution by providing high speed Ethernet links to 80 million homes initially and eventually to every home. This revolution will enlighten every home with an entire range of television channels, high-speed telephony, audio conferencing, videoconferencing and video on demand.

The company is also launching, Reliance IndiaMobile service, the consumer mobile experience by offering a host of applications on the mobile phone such as enhanced messaging in Indian languages, email access, Internet surfing, access to real time political, financial and sports news, games and video streaming. This will enable users to send text messages in Indian languages, access their email and other Internet accounts, surf the net at speeds of up to 144 kbps, be the first to get breaking news, view and listen to scenes from the latest movies and experience many other exciting applications.

The Reliance IndiaMobile service will be available only on CDMA 2000 1X handsets specially imported by Reliance. These are light, sleek, Java enabled, multi-media ready phones with polyphonic sound and with features like 3-way conferencing, call forwarding, in-built phonebook memory, special lifestyle features such as organizers, calendars, world clock and lithium ion battery for long talk time. Premium handsets have a colour screen and PC synchronization support.

All handsets and in-box accessories will be home delivered free of cost, have a 12-month warranty and are covered by insurance, absolutely free, for a period of 3 years.

The Reliance IndiaMobile service will offer an incredible value proposition to users with abundant minutes for a limited spend, long distance calls to any phone in the country at low rates, a pan- India presence, superior voice quality and data capabilities, state-of-the-art handsets, 24 hour high speed Internet access and a host of unique applications.

There will be three schemes on offer. The Dhirubhai Ambani Pioneer Offer will be open for subscribers with an unbeatable proposition that includes one free digital mobile phone, unlimited free incoming calls, 15 second pulse rate, abundant minutes for a limited spend that include all local calls, all state long distance calls and long distance calls to any Reliance phone in the country.

Within the plan, the cost of a STD call is 40 paise a minute and that of a short call up to 15 seconds is only 10 paise. The scheme also allows for exchange of current mobile handset, a suite of data applications initially at no content charge and discount coupons for various products and services from the most popular retailers.

All the value-added services are offered free. These cover a regular voice-mail service, call waiting, call hold, call divert, call conferencing, caller line identification, caller line identification restriction, dynamic STD/ ISD locking and text messaging. This scheme fulfils Dhirubhai Ambani’s dream of enabling subscribers to communicate at a cost that is less than the price of a postcard.

The Pioneer scheme of Reliance IndiaMobile service has a modest upfront payment and monthly payments for three years, covering rental, usage charges, club privileges and plan financing charges. Users of this scheme will also have the option of paying the entire amount upfront and thereby saving financing charges.

The other two schemes are ‘Regular’ and ‘Standard’ schemes. The regular scheme is an upfront payment plan, which covers only talk time and the standard plan of the Reliance IndiaMobile service is a monthly payment plan.