Reliance Communications Place Bulk Order For Mobile Handsets

[abhay 0]

Reliance Communications place bulk order for mobile handsets

Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications Ltd have placed a bulk order for mobile handsets, enabling a further cut in handset costs, ADAG sources said today.

"Reliance Communications has placed significant bulk orders for handsets, the shipments of which, would start landing in India from next week onwards. The handsets would be in the market within 15 days," Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group sources said.

The order, which could fuel the ongoing price war between the two CDMA players, Reliance and Tata is estimated to the tune of four million units over next three months, industry sources said.

Reliance spokesperson, however, did not comment on the matter.

Meanwhile, ADAG sources said, "we will be getting the handsets at a good price... That could lead to a reduction in handset costs".

Reliance Communications is working towards increasing its absolute market share to over 22 per cent thus beating Bharti`s Airtel by the next three months.

The company`s forthcoming expansion in GSM services will further increase its subscriber growth that currently accounts for close to 70 per cent of the country`s subscriber base and monthly net additions, analysts say.

"Reliance Communications is currently working towards closing the gap of .64 million subscribers in three months," they said.

The company has added 1.1 million subscribers in July.

http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?...=54&sid=BUS

[anujit 0]

And till now they were buying them per piece?

Bulk orders = decent discounts. And this is especially true when you look at prices of US telecom operators where price difference between unlocked & operator locked handsets go between $50-$100!!!

[abhay 0]

Reliance, Nokia in CDMA handset deal

Private telecom major Reliance Communications has placed an order for two million CDMA handsets with Finnish telecom major Nokia.

The European handset major is hawking the handsets at around Rs 2,000 a piece to customers, which will be bundled with Reliance's services.

"Reliance is sourcing handsets from Nokia at a comparatively cheaper price, and this is made possible due to the bulk order that the Indian company has placed with the global mobile instrument provider," sources close to the development told Business Standard.

Currently, Nokia is one of the handset providers to the Anil Ambani group company. However, its products are mainly in the upper band - in the range of Rs 5,000 and above.

The Finnish company is expecting to provide its Nokia 1255 series of handsets under the deal with the first shipment will commence by the end of this week.

The companies are also expected to announce the deal soon, sources said. When contacted Reliance Communications officials declined to comment on the development.

At present, South Korean chaebol LG Electronics is the only handset-maker providing instruments in the Rs 2,000 range to Reliance Communications.

The Indian CDMA provider is bundling over 25 models - both high and low-end models - from various companies like Motorola, Samsung and LG.

Earlier, Nokia had signed a similar contract with Reliance Communications (then Reliance Infocomm) for its 'Monsoon Hungama' scheme.

The company had offered CDMA 2000 1X Nokia 2280 handsets under the scheme which was marketed by Nokia and Reliance distribution channel, including Reliance Webworld and Reliance Independent Sales Agents.

http://www.business-standard.com/iceworld/...03781&tab=r

[amtrag 20]

Wow...and we thought there won't be any more Nokia handsets on CDMA.

But these are all low-end handsets..

[KumaarShah 143]

Well, it is like this. The urban market has reached a plateau now. The market is there only in the hinterland or the rural areas. These rural areas do not need any fancy handsets at all. They only want something which will provide pan-India connectivity at affordable rates.

So,why should Reliance/Nokia/LG/Samsung/etc introduce high-end handsets when there is no big market for these?

It is plain business sense and nothing else. The volumes are there only in the low priced handsets and not in the high price handsets. Can Reliance and Nokia ink a deal for 2 million 6265 handsets?it willtake them ten years or more to sell that qty.

I am not against introduction of highend handsets, it is only that business sense drives such low end handset introductions. Thats all.

[abhay 0]

Korean mobile phone makers ship ultra-cheap sets to India

More affordable mobile phones are heading to India and other poorer countries, thanks to two Korean cell phone makers. ROSE Telecom and Kedcom have announced that they are shipping 100,000 phones for just $30 each to India's Reliance Infocomm.

As you would imagine, these low-cost phones just have basic features. The small phones have a 1.5-inch color screen, basic text messaging, and no Bluetooth or multimedia playback.

ROSE Telecom and Kedcom are planning on eventually shipping 6 million phones by 2009. Nokia and Motorola have already begun selling similarly priced phones to India.

http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/12/21/cheaper_phones_india/