Convergence Plus Journal

MUMBAI -- Reliance IndiaMobile is offering one of the most advanced mobile telephony services in the world at tariffs that are probably the lowest in the world.

Reliance Infocomm is the largest greenfield rollout of any telecom network in the world. It has a truly world class infrastructure -- 60,000 km of optic fiber, state-of-the art technology platform and equipment, powerful computers residing in hi-tech data centers, advanced customer support infrastructure and centralized real-time network monitoring. As a tribute to the great visionary, Dhirubhai Ambani, Reliance IndiaMobile is making a special Dhirubhai Ambani Pioneer Offer.

The tariffs for pioneer offer are the most attractive in the industry -- whether for short-distance (local) or long distance (STD). A subscriber will need to pay only 40 paise per minute for STD calls between Reliance IndiaMobile to Reliance IndiaMobile WLL phones and 40 paise plus 'off-net operator charge' (if charged by operators) for all calls to non-Reliance IndiaMobile WLL phones within a circle. Under the pioneer offer, the pulse rate is 15 seconds; so, a short call of up to 15s will cost you only 10 paise, not Rs 1.20 as on a landline.

Reliance IndiaMobile offers mobility at a cost lower than a fixed line phone. It offers high-speed Internet connectivity (144Kbps as against 56Kbps for dial-up connection from the landline) and can be used as a modem to connect PCs and laptops to the Internet. Reliance IndiaMobile is providing imported, digital handsets that are customised for optimum performance on its network, and offer a whole lot of powerful applications that leverages its high-speed Internet connectivity. These include movie video clips, cricket, news, TV serials and hundreds of songs; large library of games; email; picture messaging; chat; ringtones; screensavers; live news ticker; stock trading, etc.

Most of these applications and content are available free or at a substantial discount to Dhirubhai Ambani Pioneer Club members. Other facilities like caller ID, call waiting, call holding, voice mail and SMS are available free as well. Club members will get a high-end mobile phone worth Rs 10,500 free. One-year warranty, three-year insurance and after-sales service cover the handsets.

The service is available in 673 cities across the country. After Reliance Infocomm came up with its tariff, Convergence Plus received several queries from our subscribers about its details. We met up with a company official from Reliance Infocomm to learn more about its service. He clarified some of the doubts that potential users might have. Excerpts from an interview:

Convergence Plus: Will your WLL services allow multimedia messaging or will there be separate cellular service for MMS?

Reliance company official: Reliance IndiaMobile provides multimedia services such as audio and video clips of movies, cricket, news, TV serials and hundreds of songs; large library of games; stock prices; screen savers; live news ticker; etc. MMS is, as its name suggests, the ability to send messages comprising a combination of text, sounds, images and video to MMS capable handsets, along with a host of other services. All Reliance IndiaMobile handsets, including the base models having monochrome display, are Internet ready and multimedia capable. Multimedia services are part of Reliance IndiaMobile's basic offering.

CP: Cellular service providers have been saying that Reliance is violating the license terms by offering roaming and STD on WLL. Please comment. What is the multi-registration service? How can any subscriber make simultaneous registrations in several SDCAs where WLL is restricted?

RCO: All our services are strictly complying with the licensing conditions. Depending on their area and frequency of travel, Reliance IndiaMobile subscribers can opt to register themselves in multiple SDCAs, with different numbers for each SDCA. When a customer visits another city, all the calls will be delivered to his/her number within that particular SDCA.

Reliance IndiaMobile's service is available in 673 cities across India. Roaming service means when a customer of one service provider can use the network of another service provider where the customer's service provider has not invested in a network. Reliance IndiaMobile service uses its own network in all SDCAs (short-distance charging area -- approximately equivalent to a district) and hence, it is not similar to roaming.

CP: Will the recent TRAI tariff order bring about any change in the previously announced charges? For instance, will the customer pay access charges in addition to 40 paise per minute for calling anywhere in India?

RCO: Reliance firmly believes in being transparent with the customers. For calls on Reliance's network, from one Reliance IndiaMobile to another, there will be no additional charges, i.e., our tariffs will not increase. We will offer symmetric zero termination charge to all the other operators so that customers are not burdened. If the terminating service provider imposes a charge on us, then that amount will be recovered from the customer. We believe that this transparent way of showing costs recovered from the customer will create the highest customer confidence.

CP: Can we have details about the Innomedia service designed by Dr. Mohan Tambe?

RCO: You will hear more about the Ethernet based set-top box soon.

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