29.9.08

RCom soft launches GSM service in Mumbai, Delhi

Reliance Communications (RCom), the telecom arm of the ADA Group, is all set to launch its GSM mobile services in major cities.The company soft launched its GSM services in Mumbai and Delhi circles yesterday with about 10,000 of its employees participating. With RCom too entering the Mumbai’s telecom space, it would be the second player after Idea Cellular to launch its GSM services in the city, one of the largest telecom services in the country. Besides the two metropolises, the company has also started testing its GSM network in pockets of UP, Gujarat, Punjab, Rajasthan and the four southern states. According to sources, RCom has started testing its GSM network in cities which account for 45% of the Indian telecom subscriber base. Testing in others places will start soon. Depending upon how quickly the network is optimised, the final launch for customers could take a couple of months or more after the soft launch, industry players said. An RCom spokesperson confirmed that with the plan to launch its pan-India GSM service, the company has started testing its network in several circles in the country. The company had earmarked about Rs 6,000 crore for launching its GSM services in those circles where it is not present. Source said telecom equipment providers like Huawie, Alcatel and TenXc are engaged in the setting up the network for RCom. As of now RCom has GSM as well as CDMA footprints in some of the eastern and north eastern states, while rest of the country is covered by only CDMA services. Currently, the company has a total subscriber base of about 55 million from 20,000 towns and over 4 lakh villages across the country. While in the first phase of the soft launch the company’s employees are being given test SIM cards, in the next phase RCom will get associates, vendors and some others on the network for testing the robustness of its network.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

wn its going 2 launch in karnataka