Arun

Reliance Mobile World adds more services to M-Commerce MoneyControl.com - 2006-12-15 16:54 IST In line with its endeavour to offer the power of convenience to its many million customers, Reliance Communications today added a few more mass-market Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce) applications on the Reliance Mobile World platform. The company has tied up with Reliance Energy to offer the convenience of electricity bill payments which would benefit roughly 2.5 mn customers of Reliance Energy in Mumbai. In the Electricity bill payment application, Reliance Energy customers can view and pay his/her bills over Reliance Mobile using ITZ cash card, after a simple registration procedure. A customer holding an ITZ Cash Card can pay their utility bills by click of a button on Reliance Mobile World (R World) without needing to access the internet. Through another tie-up with leading multiplex cinemas including Adlabs, Fame Cinema and PVR, Reliance Mobile customers would now be able to book movie tickers on click of a button, anytime anywhere. “The fast growing subscriber base in the country offers significant opportunities to offer mass-market as well as niche M-Commerce applications, and Reliance Communications is confident of enhancing our leadership in this arena by introducing a slew of innovative services”, said Mahesh Prasad. President - Application and Solutions Group, Reliance Communications. The Movie ticket booking service would initially be available for 57 screens across Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Bangalore and customers and ten more cities will be added to the list by end of January along with Inox and the Cinemax theatres. Customers can access it on Reliance Mobile World>MoreServices>TravelNshop>Movie Tickets. After selecting the theatre of their choice, the customers can browse through movie list and the preferred date. On making the payment through a credit card, a confirmatory SMS received can be shown at the theatre counter for issuing the tickets. The same service can also be accessed on the Reliance Mobile voice interactive service by dialling 1234 and saying “Movie Tickets”. Reliance Mobile World has gained popularity as a one-stop-shop for entertainment, communication, gaming and m-commerce. Thanks to the wide range of applications it has endeared itself to users from all walks of life. Reliance Mobile World’s applications include mobile TV, videos, cricket updates, music, ringtones, m-commerce, mobile mail, messaging, city and TV guides, railway reservations, banking, bill payment and examination results. Dial 1234, which is the voice interactive service of the Reliance Mobile World suite has a bouquet of services such as Talking Message Service (TMS), MyTunes (caller ringback tones), apart from the popular find-a-friend, play-a-song, ringtones, cricket and other services.

Anil Ambani seems to be ready now for the GSM splash (either through the Hutch deal or own network expansion) as his US$ 1 billion loan is ready Reliance Communications raises US$ 1 billion debt overseas Business Standard / Mumbai December 15, 2006 Reliance Communications has raised $1 billion from international lenders, in one of the largest debt funding provided to an Indian telecommunications company. Leading bankers including ABN Amro, Standard Chartered and Citibank are the facilitators of the five-year, unsecured loan. The Anil Ambani-controlled company will use the proceeds for expansion of networks and facilities, apart from general corporate purposes, according to sources close to the development. A Reliance spokesman declined to comment on the issue. The loan comes amid speculations that the company is looking at acquiring 67 per cent stake in the GSM operator Hutch-Essar. Reliance Communications had also earlier announced that it would raise up to $1 billion by issuing securities in overseas markets. According to a telecom analyst, Reliance needed money for its expansion plans, even if the Hutch deals fails to go through. The company was getting "aggressive in the GSM sector in the country" and was looking for funds. In the company's earnings call on November 11, 2006, its chairman Anil Ambani had stated that the company needed around $1.5 billion capex for the current year. The company has invested a total of Rs 1,945.8 crore in various projects like wireless (Rs 1,499 crore), global initiatives (Rs 367 crore), broadband (Rs 270 crore) and other initiatives (Rs 528 crore) as on September 30, 2006. Reliance was also planning strengthen its GSM presence by setting up a pan-India presence and had applied for Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for radio frequencies in the 1800 MHz band.

me leeching mp3s from the movie Guru at the moment @kams19: You need a Torrent client like utorrent (www.utorrent.com). Then register in a Torrent site, browse for the stuff you are looking for, download its torrent file to your PC, open it in the Torrent client and it starts downloading. But remember to seed (just leave it running) after you leech !

3G launch in India goes begging yet again ! Military throws a spanner in the 3G works Times News Network - Tuesday, December 12, 2006 India’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) has told the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that it will not hand over spectrum for 3G services until the regulator addresses security concerns regarding the frequencies it has been offered in return. According to the Economic Times, the MoD currently has ownership of frequencies the DoT wants to allocate to 3G operators. The telecoms regulator has proposed a spectrum swap under which the MoD will be offered space on the existing networks of state-run mobile operators Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) in exchange for its 3G frequencies. However, the MoD is concerned that the BSNL and MTNL networks are not secure enough for military use and wants the system upgraded. Analysts estimate that making the networks fully secure could send costs spiralling upwards to INR27 billion (USD600 million), almost three-times the original expected outlay. The DoT must now decide whether to acquiesce to the military’s demands and, if so, who will foot the bill. This may put on hold the telecom companies’ plans to roll out 3G services. BSNL had proposed to provide bandwidth in its existing network to defence forces. It planned to make it secure by implementing a technology called bulk encryption units. Defence forces, however, are not comfortable with implementation of bulk encryption units. They feel that any public network is susceptible to leakage of information. Therefore, they have asked for a parallel network to be established by the two companies. At present, defence forces use wireless extensively for their communication needs and have been allotted substantial spectrum. The band of spectrum that is being used by defence forces is also required by the telecom operators for providing mobile telephone applications. Therefore, the government has asked the forces to vacate the spectrum. A steering committee comprising officials from the department of telecommunications and the defence forces has been set up for the purpose.

More of Maran talk from India Telecom 2006 at New Delhi... India is adding one mobile phone user every second RxPG News - New Delhi, Dec 14 India's mobile phone industry is expanding exponentially, adding one new subscriber every second to take the total telephone subscriber base to 250 million by 2007, Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran said here Thursday. 'India's telecommunications industry is on a very high growth trajectory. We have already crossed the 185 million subscribers mark, and by 2007 India will have 250 million phone subscribers,' the minister said at India Telecom 2006, inaugurated by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at the Pragati Maidan fairground here. 'Our mobile subscriber base is increasing phenomenally each year, adding almost six million new subscribers a month, which means one customer is added every second,' Maran told the conference attended by the who's who of Indian telecom. 'By 2010, India will have more than 500 million mobile subscribers from the current base which is more than 140 million,' Maran said. 'This year we have already had investments of up to $17 billion in IT and telecom, of which $1.5 billion have been in telecom alone,' the minister said. He said an investment of $2 billion had been made in telecom manufacturing only. 'And more investments are on the anvil.'

Happy Birthday rakesh, raccoon and others !!!

Have you checked whether BitPim is able to read your phone's contents ?

Did they give you any brouchure containing the offer details and offer period ? If you believe that the handset was activated within the offer period and the offer is valid for you, submit a complaint here: http://www.reliancecommunications.co.in/we...Information.jsp

KKR in talks with ADAG to bid for Hutch Essar Times News Network - Wednesday, December 13, 2006 Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR), one of America's top private equity funds, has begun talks with the Anil Ambani group to try to form a partnership that will bid for Hutchison-Essar, India's third-largest GSM operator and the most sought-after acquisition in the telecom sector. Investment bankers familiar with the development said that KKR, whose controversial buyout of the storied RJR Nabsico in 1988 was derided as an example of predatory capitalism at its worst, is keen to get a foothold in the world's fastest-growing telecom market by buying Hutchison's India wireless operations. The New York-based KKR will thus join Texas Pacific Group and Blackstone, who have also been holding talks with the Anil Ambani group for a similar partnership. “It is very preliminary as of now. There are a number of unknowns in a transaction of this type,” a person familiar with the talks said. The R-ADAG group spokesperson was not available for comment. KKR's move and the eagerness shown by both Blackstone and Texas Pacific intensify the suspense surrounding Hutchison-Essar. Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong-based owner with a 67% stake, is believed to have shown an inclination to sell, but any buyer will have to contend with the Essar group, which owns the remaining 33%. Last week, Texas Pacific along with Malaysia's Maxis made a bid for 100% of Hutchison-Essar at an enterprise value of $13.5 billion. The bidders approached Canning Fok, chairman of Hutchison Telecom International, the parent of Hutchison Essar, who was in India on a brief visit. The bid was turned down. TPG then sought talks with the Anil Ambani group. The only unknown factor is the motive of the Essar group. The ships-to-steel conglomerate has a right of first refusal in Hutchison-Essar, which means that Hutchison Whampoa will first have to offer its stake to the group before selling it to others.

Sunil Jain in New Delhi | November 12, 2005 11:07 IST - Rediff.com The last component of an ambitious plan to lower national and international long-distance call rates will fall in place by the end of the month when the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India implements the carrier access code. The code will allow individual users to decide which company will carry their long-distance traffic. So, Bharti mobile phone users can indicate whether calls they wish to make from Delhi to Mumbai are to be carried on a Reliance Infocomm or a VSNL long-distance network as these companies' rates are more attractive than Bharti's, for instance. Today, without the CAC, there is little competition among long-distance players like Bharti, VSNL-Tata and Reliance since their subscribers cannot choose their long-distance carriers. So, even if, say, Reliance offers lower long-distance rates than Bharti, users of Bharti's mobile service cannot use Reliance's long-distance service. In effect, though there are three domestic long-distance players, no competition exists among them. Once the CAC is allowed, this will change, especially because stand-alone long-distance call providers will now be able to offer very low rates to individuals who will now be free to use their services, much like what happens in countries like the US. On July 24, 2002, Trai had issued instructions that the CAC be implemented, but at that time Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd had said it was not ready for this and would have to spend a huge amount of money to implement the service since its exchanges were not computerised. One of the pre-requisites for the CAC is having a billing service, which maintains a call data record. CDR, literally, records call duration and to whom a call is made). When BSNL expressed the inability to implement the CDR, the department of telecommunications gave it a one-year extension in November 2002. MTNL, too, had said it could not implement the CDR (and, therefore, the CAC) for similar reasons. The DoT, had, however, issued CACs for long-distance players in 2002 itself. So, if a call has to be carried by Reliance, an user will have to dial 1030. For Bharti, it is 1050 and for VSNL, 1040, and then punch in the STD code and the phone number. In 2002, the DoT had formed a committee to examine the whole issue of costs. The committee had concluded that the actual cost for setting up the CDR and the CAC for BSNL would be a fourth of Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) BSNL had indicated. It was pointed out that BSNL had added a lot of other costs, such as those of replacing certain old exchanges, which they would have had to change anyway. According to Trai, BSNL's CDR billing system should be fully stable by the end of the month and, therefore, it has asked all operators to submit details of their CDR-CAC readiness by November 21. After this, Trai will reiterate its earlier order for implementation. Once this happens, Trai will also allow long-distance operators to charge lower rates for carrying calls. Today, a minute's carriage charges are set at between 20 paise and Rs 1.1 for different distances even though leased line rates have fallen by over 70 per cent over the past few months. Trai has said that after the CAC is implemented, operators will be free to charge market rates and so, rates are expected to tumble. Read more about CAC here

good speed there Honest. I found an online typing speed test here: http://www.typingtest.com/test/default.asp I clocked a gross 53 Words Per Minute for the 1 minute test.

Trai drops carrier access code plan The Financial Express Saturday, December 09, 2006 at 0048 hours IST Barely days after the department of telecommunications (DoT) ignored the suggestion by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on implementing mobile number portability, Trai is believed to have decided to dump yet another consumer-friendly reform "carrier access code (CAC)" which would allow subscribers to choose long-distance carriers. According to sources, Trai has decided against implementing CAC, which has been on hold for more than two years now. Unlike mobile number portability where the final decision rested with the DoT, on CAC, Trai's decision is supposed to be final. Sources said that Trai believes CAC is unnecessary since it recently issued intelligent network regulations. These regulations make it mandatory for telecom operators to provide interconnection to each other's network to access toll-free numbers and virtual calling cards (VCCs). While Trai chairman Nripendra Misra told FE that no final decision has yet been taken on CAC, sources said that with the intelligent network regulations being put in place, the choice of carrier for consumers would be available through VCC cards. For instance, a BSNL subscriber could buy VCC cards of a rival operator whose long-distance tariffs were more attractive. Telecom operators, who have been lobbying against CAC implementation, would be the major beneficiaries of the move. CAC implementation would have cost them over Rs 2,000 crore in network upgrade. Operators have reasoned that competition had already brought down STD/ISD rates and there was no need to implement CAC. They have been saying that there was enough competition in the market driving down tariffs. Earlier, Trai had invited national and international long-distance operators to discuss the issue but sources said operators were against its implementation because of the cost involved. CAC implementation was put on hold earlier because the government had requested Trai to give BSNL time as its revenue would have shrunk with the implementation of CAC.

spare LCD display should be available at Service Center, though it could be very costly. or else see if you can order it for cheap from eBay and get it replaced by the Service Center: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...=35212&rd=1 Its coming to around Rs.4000

gavnitsingh changed to GSV13

Mojopac is a software that can cram your Windows XP desktop, settings, accounts, and even programs and preferences onto any portable storage medium (like USB brive, ipod, mobile, etc.) to be accessed as a virtual desktop from another computer. You can insert the drive into any other computer running Windows XP and have your own applications and data available to you. When you're finished working, remove the drive and leave nothing on the host machine. This has real possibilities for someone who travels and isn't always able to carry or connect a laptop, or someone who finds it more convenient to go from a home desktop machine to a work desktop machine using a tool that weighs essentially nothing, rather than a laptop. If there's a particular program that's needed to achieve results you want someone in the office to get, you can load up a flash drive with all the necessaries and give (or lend) it to them. A CD won't do that !

'munnamobile' changed to 'Shaikhsadik' - courtesy, ashoksoft

Anil’s Reliance eyes Hutch Hindustan Times New Delhi, December 7, 2006 A majority stake in Hutchison Essar Ltd, the company that controls the Hutch brand of GSM telephony services in the country, is up for sale to global private equity firms. Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications Ltd (RCL), keen to get a foothold in GSM cellular services, may be a partner for them, a private industry source said on Thursday. The source confirmed a report in the online edition of The Wall Street Journal that cited "people familiar with the matter", to assert that the wireless assets could be sold in a deal worth more than $8 - 12 billion (Rs 3600 - 5400 crore). "There have been noises in the United States about the possibility of a stake being taken in the India operations of Hutch by two equity firms along with Reliance," the source, who asked not to be identified, told the Hindustan Times from Mumbai. It is not yet clear who will be the sellers of the stakes in the joint venture led by India's Essar Group and Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing's Hutchison group. In Hutchison Essar, Hutch Whampoa, Analjit Singh, Asim Ghosh and Orascom hold 67 per cent, while the Ruia promoted Essar holds 33 per cent. The source, however, mentioned Texas Pacific Group (TPG) and Blackstone, among the heavyweights in the private equity industry hunting for big stakes in India, as likely buyers. A Hutch spokesman in India had no comment. Blackstone officials could not be reached. A spokesman for the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) said: "We don't comment on market rumours." A spokesman for Newbridge Capital, the Indian arm of TPG, also offered no comment. Industry analysts noted that on December 5, Sandip Das, Hutchison Essar's deputy managing director had quit to join Maxis Communications, which seemed to indicate an internal fissures in the company. Essar was said to have raised questions over the entry of Egyptian telecom major Orascom as a stakeholder in the Indian operations. They added that the stake sale seemed all the more probable because Reliance, which has been keen to break into GSM services to top its services based on rival CDMA technology, could be hunting to take over GSM assets, so as to rival Bharti Airtel Ltd., the country's leading GSM player. If the deal goes through commercially, it will still have to grapple with regulatory requirements that restrict cross-holding of stakes across telecom circles, industry analysts say. One analyst said about 60 per cent in Hutch's Indian assets could be up for sale to the consortium. Ravi V Prasad, telecom analyst said, “Over the last few years private equity firms in India have benefited hugely from their investments in telecom and IT. There is possibility with robust telecom market they might look for a medium term investment.” "RCL has been exploring ways to increase its foothold in telecom service using GSM. It has not been successful so far. Acquiring of Hutch makes business sense,” said Prasad. Sri Rajan, partner, Bain and Company India, said, “The telecom sector in India particularly the wireless space has attracted a lot attention, as can be seen by the recent investments. Blackstone ropes in Anil for $8bn Hutch-Essar bid The Financial Express Friday, December 08, 2006 at 0117 hours IST The stake will give the private equity firms a de facto management control of Hutchison Essar in which the Ruia family-controlled Essar group is the second most dominant partner with a 33% stake. The balance 15% is held by Analjit Singh and Hutchison Essar managing director Asim Ghosh through Telecom Investments India. Analysts said a Blackstone-Reliance Communications bid would face several obstacles. Reliance Communications will not be able to bid for more than 10% in Hutchison Essar since current telecom regulations prohibit a stake higher than 10% in a rival telecom operator. The combined market share of the two companies in each circle also must not exceed 66%. These regulations will keep Reliance Communications from owning a majority stake in any proposed consortium to take over HTIL’s stake. Analysts say Essar is sure to oppose any arrangement that allows Reliance a stake in its telecom venture. A $8-billion bid for the stake will value Hutchison Essar at over $16 billion. Analysts said HTIL promoter Hutchison Whampoa had been open to selling its stake because of its differences with Indian joint venture partner Essar. The two partners have been at odds ever since Hutchison Whampoa sold a 19.3% equity in HTIL Egypt’s largest telecom operator Orascom earlier this year. The sale gave Orascom a beneficial stake of 10% in Hutchison Essar along with two board positions. The sale did not go down well with Essar which objected to the stake sale, citing security risks. It requested the government to clarify whether a sale of stake in a company that owned an Indian firm required government approval. The government is yet to finalise a comprehensive law to scrutinise foreign investment coming from unfriendly countries or companies inimical to the country’s security. However, the national security council is framing a comprehensive law on the matter. Hutch-Essar operates in 16 circles and has close to 20 million subscribers. Reliance operates in all the 23 circles and has 29 million subscribers. While Hutchison Essar has applied for licences in the remaining circles, estranged relations with Essar of late have hurt its expansion plans. The differences have also delayed the proposed initial public offer of the company.

You can opt for any of the Data based plans mentioned here (under: For Reliance Netconnect Card only). Platinum plan doesn't have any limit at all. If you opt for Freedom plans, make sure you have an eye on the data transfer per month.

Does the laptop have a PCMCIA card slot ? If it doesn't have PCMICA slot, Huawei EC325 should work as it is USB based, costs around Rs.4500 Note that it isn't really a Data Card, but external type modem. Check it out here.

I received 1 handset from Sivaprasad today, R-UIM enabled one and was fine. Hope to get more soon.

Does the slowness go off when you disconnect and close the NetConnect dialer ? Have you tried creating a DUN dialer and connecting ? If it still slows down your laptop, it really could be some virus activity that starts its work when you go online, as Vishal pointed out.

Cheers to Ashok Karkera and others !!!

ZTE bags US$700 million Reliance Communications contract Business Standard / Mumbai - November 28, 2006 Reliance Communications has awarded a $700 million equipment contract to Chinese telecommunications vendor ZTE Corporation under its proposed GSM foray. Under the contract, the Chinese company will supply GSM equipment, including base transceiver stations (BTS), receivers, soft switches and other equipment, to the Indian company. The award is the beginning of the company’s GSM plans and Reliance would start getting the equipment after the allocation of spectrum by the ministry of communications and IT, sources close to the development said. Other companies, such as Huwaei, Alcatel and Motorola, are also believed to be in the fray. This would be only a part of the contract, as the company is planning to float tenders for its extended foray into the GSM segment. A Reliance Communications spokesperson could not be contacted for confirmation. ZTE is also believed to have provided technology and equipment to Reliance for conducting beta tests on GSM lines. Reliance is believed to have initiated beta tests in certain circles, even as it is awaiting spectrum allocation to commence full-fledged operations. ZTE Corporation will provide the technology for conducting trials on either Tata Teleservices’ or Reliance Communication’s mobile network. ZTE had earlier signed a joint venture deal with India’s MCorpGlobal after the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) had rejected its applications to hike investment in the Indian subsidiary. ZTE had sought to import telecom equipment for wholesale trading in India. MCorpGlobal is a BK Modi group company. The CDMA major is gearing up to offer GSM services in the country, starting with Delhi and Mumbai, with an initial investment of Rs 2,000 crore. The Anil Ambani group company is planning a tender of 75 million GSM lines, which is slated to be one of the biggest contracts in the country. On a sheer size, the tender is much bigger than that of the state-owned telecom behemoth, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), which had recently floated a 45 million GSM line tender. Reliance is awaiting allocation of 1,800 mhz radio frequency, with the department of telecommunications mulling opening it for commercial use. The spectrum — 1,800 mhz — is currently in possession of the defence forces and is one of the most efficient frequency, as both CDMA and GSM operations can be conducted on this.

They seem to have officially launched it now... Reliance's Free Group Term Life Cover EFYtimes.com Monday, November 27, 2006 Reliance Communications Limited has announced today the launch of a unique scheme that offers 'Free Group Term Life Cover' (TLC) exclusively to more than 25 million CDMA subscribers of Reliance Mobile and Reliance Hello. This, first of its kind scheme in the country, offers Reliance Communications' customers an insurance cover of upto Rs 50,000 merely through an SMS without paying any premium. The Free Group Term Life cover is a step in line with the constant endeavour of Reliance Communications to enhance the value offering to our many million customers", said Mr. S.P. Shukla, President - Personal Business, RCL. "With Reliance Group serving over 50 million consumers in the country, this is the first step in our quest to extend the benefits of the synergy among the group companies to our customers", he added. This Group Term Life Cover is underwritten by Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited, an associate company of Reliance Capital Limited. The minimum cover is Rs 5,000 for the prepaid and Rs 10,000 for the post-paid CDMA subscribers. However, the maximum cover is Rs 50,000 for both types of subscribers. The cover is valid for a period of 6 months from the date a subscriber responds to the company by SMS, provided the Master Policy is in force. The cover offered is calculated on the basis of previous six months cumulative recharges for the prepaid subscribers and cumulative bills for the post- paid subscribers. Subscribers have to just send an SMS from their handsets to 5433 mentioning their city and the Free Group Term Life Cover will be activated on the very same day. They would receive a reply SMS requesting them to visit the COI microsite (relianceadagroup.com/TLP) to download their certificate of insurance. All current, prepaid and postpaid CDMA subscribers of Reliance Mobile or Reliance Hello between the age of 18 and 59 years are eligible under this scheme. In case of any unfortunate eventuality, the subscriber's nominee will have to get in touch with Reliance Life Insurance Company to file the claim. However the claim would be entertained only one month (30 days waiting period) after the cover activation by SMS. The Free Group Term Life Cover is a pure risk cover. Annexure A details the minimum and maximum cover, monthly ranges and sum assured for the Free Group Term Life Cover. But at the time of posting this article, www.relianceadagroup.com/TLP/ wasn't opening for me

RIL plans private GSM network Business Standard / New Delhi November 25, 2006 Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd is preparing to apply for permission to set up a nation-wide broadband telecom network for internal (non-commercial) use. The network will in part use the global system for mobile (GSM) standard for mobile communications, as well as the latest broadband wireless technologies like WiMax to support a number of business applications. The idea behind the network, which may entail investments of up to $750 million in the long term, is to connect Reliance Industries entire set-up in the country onto a common intelligent backbone. This will serve various ends — connecting the entire Reliance Retail supply chain and front-end to a real time platform and linking the Reliance Petroleum chain, as well as hooking up the company to various trading centres and commodity exchanges in India and abroad. The company will also use the network for connectivity within its planned Special Economic Zones and to meet bandwidth demands. Crucially, the company plans to use its own “interface devices” in the network. It is not clear yet whether the platform will also provide voice connectivity to Reliance Industries employees. The need for a telecom network arose after the split in the company, which saw the Reliance Infocomm network go to Anil Ambani. Subsequently, RIL moved much of its business to other operators — Airtel for voice connectivity and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) for leased line connectivity. Given its huge communication needs (by some estimates, Reliance Industries pays between Rs 200 cr and Rs 250 cr per annum for leased line connectivity alone to BSNL), it makes sense for the company to invest in an internal network, especially given the ease with which regulatory approvals are likely to materialise, as well as the cheap equipment costs. An added advantage is the experience that some key company employees have in setting up and managing telecom networks. The company will have to apply to the department of telecom for approvals, including grant of frequencies to operate the network. Planning was on and a blueprint for the network was expected soon, said sources. State entities like the railways, the defence establishment, and the police rely on extensive internal communication networks.