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India
Telecom
November 1, 2002
Reliance Infocom inauguration is official
MUMBAI -- Reliance Infocom, the Ambani business house’s
ambitious nationwide communication network, will be
launched on December 28, the birthday of the founder
Dhirubhai Amabani who passed away early this year.
Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of the group made this announcement
at a crowded AGM of the company on October 31. Reliance
had been tight-lipped on its infocom program all these
months, though the corporate rumour mills were giving
out some details of the reportedly Rs 25,000-crore investment
contemplated. So far, the investment is stated to be
Rs 4,500 crores and consists mainly of a countrywide
fibre optic network, basic service in Gujarat and cellular
services in the North Eastern states. It also has licenses
for national and international long-distance operation
and basic services in most of the states.
Mukesh Ambani’s announcement is the first official
response to frequent enquiries on Reliance Infocom's
program. "Beginning with the villages of Gujarat,
the infocom revolution will sweep the country and cover
thousands of villages and hundreds of cities,"
he said.
Reliance is planning a major foray in providing basic
services on its fibre optic network using CDMA for limited
mobility and wireless phones, instead of trying to put
up a wireline based basic service. It already has an
agreement with Qualcomm on using CDMA technology for
mobile WLL. It has also signed up with Comverse of the
US for prepaid and messaging services on CDMA-based
WLL.
It will simultaneously implement its national and international
long distance services. In fact, Reliance was the first
private sector firm to propose countrywide telecom services
in the private sector. However, the national plan it
submitted to the government in the early nineties did
not take off due to the prevailing telecom policy. The
telecom sector was opened to the private enterprise
only in 1994 under the National Telecom Policy 1994.
Contact:
Reliance Infocom
Tel: 91-22-268-4000/4198
Fax: 91-22-268-4199
Email: abdul_khan@ril.com
Web: www.ril.com
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