Reliance R-connect A Money Spinner For

[Arun 795]

Press Trust of India

Kolkata, 18 April 2005

Reliance Infocomm's wireless data connectivity service has proved to be a money spinner for the telecom service provider which has recorded a 70 per cent growth in the last four months.

With the sale of laptops in the country showing a handsome growth of around 100 per cent, Reliance Infocomm is set to corner a sizeable share of the expanding data usage market, which is growing at a very fast pace, a company official said here today.

"Our data usage facilities have already clocked 350 million minutes till march 31, 2005, showing a quantum jump of 70 per cent in the last four months," he said.

This high growth is mainly due to the Infocomm's wireless Internet connectivity offerings at affordable rates coupled with the withdrawal of customs duty on computers, he said.

The company is bullish about the growth of its wireless data connectivity business in the near future with installed desktop computers base of around 12 million growing at 40 per cent and laptop base of 0.5 million growing at 100 per cent.

"Around 48 per cent of computer users surf the internet, and with this section growing rapidly, it speaks volumes for the potential of data business in the country," the official said.

Keeping this growth in mind, Reliance Infocomm has already entered into strategic tie-ups with leading brands like Intel, IBM, LG, HCL for marketing of its R-connect service which provides uninterrupted internet connectivity.

As per the arrangement with Intel, the dealers selling branded and assembled computers with Intel processers would offer R-connect products to their customers, the official said.

Under the arrangement with IBM from this month, any IBM laptop would be available with R-connect data cards.

These initiatives had already started showing results, as in March 2005 alone, the total revenue from data business touched Rs 15 crores, the official said.

Reliance Infocomm also expects a substantial jump in its revenue after it decided to make its R-world service on the CDMA mobile phone a paid service with effect from this month.

[deepu 0]

This was only to be expected!!!