Reliance Infocomm To Invest Rs 300 Crore...

[Arun 795]

Cellular service provider Reliance Infocomm will invest Rs 300 crore in Karnataka by December this year in a bid to roll out into 260 towns in the state.

Reliance's footprint is now limited to 50 towns in Karnataka at the moment, and the telecom player is keen to increase its reach in one swift move.

"We are a stage where such a massive expansion is quite important," Reliance Infocomm CEO (Karnataka), Viney Singh, said.

With a base of 5.4 lakh subscribers in Karnataka, Reliance is second only to Airtel in Karnataka. But fuelled by the ambition to become number one in the state, the Mukesh Ambani controlled telecom giant, is planning to get into almost every single town in the state.

Considering that there are only 270 recognised towns in Karnataka, Reliance's plan to cover 260 towns ensures almost total coverage.

Reliance has realised that competition among cellular players have become tighter especially with Airtel crossing nine lakh subscribers in the state. Hutch too is on the climb.

Reliance Infocomm is also setting up 70 more of its touch points, branded Web World Express outlets, in the state. Out of this 32 will be in Bangalore.

The company is also trying is best to appeal to the SEC A consumer. For long, Reliance Infocomm had this image of being associated with SEC C customers, thanks to its innovative economy packs.

"Reliance's policy has always been to cut deeply into the market. And for this to be achieved masses had to be attracted. But now we are making a conscious attempt at wooing the corporate lot," Singh said.

The company is also trying to address the complaint that there are not too many handset options with Reliance. It has launched a new model called 'Slim', which is touted as India's thinnest mobile phone in the CDMA circuit, along with a few other handsets from the LG and Samsung racks.