Reliance Bids For Telecom License In Pak

[Mantraway 0]

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Reliance Infocomm to go global soon

Reliance Infocomm will go global as soon as its operations in India stabilise, top company sources said. The company launched operations in the country in May 2003 and has drummed up more than 6 million customers till date.

Though there was much to be done in India, the company is keeping an eye on all global licences being offered in the market. If the scale of operations is large and will develop the company's business in the way the India operations had, Reliance would bid for the licence, sources added.

The company is not interested in picking up stakes in minor operations unlike some of its competitors in the market. The effort of running a circle of a few lakhs was almost as much as one with many million customers and Reliance was in the millions league, sources said.

Sources said the company will retain its focus on large format deals such as group connections with major companies with a large employee and dealer-partner network. These deals, like one done with Hindustan Lever eralier, will help sign up thousands if not lakhs of connections at one go.

The business will focus on best cost solution for its business. Reliance may have picked up Flag Telecom but this did not mean Reliance Infocomm was committed do business with it unless it gave the best rate in the market, according to sources.

The company is less than a year old and the vision is to be one of the top ten telecom service providers in the world, S P Shukla, president of the company's wireless products and services business group, said after launch of the company's pre-paid product.

Edited June 30, 2004 by Chirag

[Chirag 5]

Reliance bids for telecom license in Pak

As one of the frontrunners, if selected Reliance would be the first Indian company to enter Pakistan's deregulated telecom sector.

Shubhendu Parth :: CIOL NEWS

Monday, June 28, 2004

NEW DELHI: Indian telecom major Reliance Infocomm has bid for landline telephone operations in Pakistan. According to information available from Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the company, along with 72 other players has bid for the Local Loop (LL) operations.

According to information available from sources, Reliance is reported to be a frontrunner, and if selected, would be the first Indian company to enter Pakistan's deregulated telecom sector.

The licenses are being issued as part of Government's telecom deregulation policy announced in July last year to put an end to Pakistan Telecommunication Ltd's (PTCL's) monopoly on basic telephony. The PTA has also constituted a committee for scrutiny and short-listing of applications to evaluate the technical and financial viability of the applicants.

The Pakistan government has fixed a $500,000 fee and a performance guarantee of $10 million for long distance and international (LDI) telecom license and a $10,000 fee for LL fixed telecom line.

The new companies, which are required to become operational within 18 months of the issuance of license, are expected to bring investments of $1 billion in the next two to three years. The PTA also expects that this will help the country double its present tele-density of 2.8 percent of fixed line during the same period.

According to available information, the PTA has received 23 applications for LDI licenses and 72 for local loop LL. Out of 72 LL applications, 12 companies have applied to start operations in all the 14 telecom regions of the country. As per PTA, entry to both the LL and LDI markets would be unrestricted and that the authority would not limit number of companies interested to enter these markets. The PTA expects to start awarding licensing from the second week of July.

Meanwhile, while Reliance Infocomm corporate communications division denied the news, its representative Sanjay Kumar Jain whose name is listed as the contact person in the PTA site clarified that the company had just purchased the tender document but did not apply. This, however, seams unlikely because the PTA site clearly lists Reliance among the companies that have applied for the license. No further information was available from the company till the time of filing the report.

[emmi 3]

ok now its the pakis turn to get fleeced . i may enjoy this twist in the story.

[sunil_jok 2]

lol that was funny emmi,

reliance popularity soaring because its going to pakistan!!!!!!

but i wonder how many would appreciate this harmless joke, since ppl are now thinking about a good future with pakistan