|
|
 Email |  Discuss | Get latest news on your desktop
Can Reliance win 100 million mobile users?
January 21, 2009
Text: Surajeet Das Gupta
When Mukesh Ambani, the head of Reliance Industries, was making a high-decibel entry into mobile telephony based on the CDMA platform six years ago, he gave several interviews recounting how his father, the redoubtable Dhirubhai, provided the guiding principle for the business.
In a customary heart-to-heart evening chat with his elder son, Dhirubhai said mobile telephony would take off only if a short how-are-you call cost less than a postcard, whose price was 15 paise.
That charted the course for Reliance Infocomm's Monsoon Hungama.
Opening on July 2, 2003, it offered a mobile phone for Rs 501, including Rs 100 worth of free talk time, and redefined the pricing and tariff structure in the business.
Until then, if you wanted a mobile phone, the handset alone cost about Rs 2,000 and more, the connection was extra.
Image: Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani. | Photograph: Roy Madhur/Reuters
Also read: The most expensive US election in history
Powered by 
| Live updates on money.rediff.com |
|
|
|
|
Advertisement
