The reasons why Reliance is doing it again are two.
First, over 80 per cent of the new additions in the mobile space are for GSM, since consumers like the flexibility of choosing their handset (CDMA phones are tied to the network).
Secondly, international roaming, especially in Europe, is difficult on CDMA, and Reliance cannot afford to loose the customers who travel as they would typically be high-usage ones.
"We will leverage on our late mover advantage. Our aim is to get part of the 250 million GSM consumers who are frustrated with their existing networks to come and try a new, better service at the lowest cost, forcing the incumbents to defend their position," says Shukla.
He says the plan is also to get a part of the 8-9 million new subscribers that come on board the GSM ship every month, a market that was so far largely out of Reliance's reach.
Macquarie Research projects that RCom should be able to capture at least 6 per cent of the net add market by the third quarter of 2009-10.
Image: Boom time for mobile telephony. | Photograph, courtesy: Reliance Communications
Also read: 10 biggest wealth creators of 2008
Powered by 
| Live updates on money.rediff.com |
|
Advertisement
