Reliance Infocomm might have been the favorite whipping boy of all and sundry during FY 2002–03, but no one can deny the unprecedented level of competitiveness that it infused into the Indian telecom industry. True, the execution of its much-touted CDMA venture could not match the grandiose launch. Still, with most of the infrastructure and plans now nearly in place, Reliance can look forward to a much brighter future.

Reliance’s biggest announcement in FY 2002–03 was, of course, that of ‘India Mobile Services’ in December 2002. However, TRAI’s regulations on tariffs and the late implementation of the network delayed the commercial rollout of the services. After missing the deadline twice in February and March, it was finally on 1 May 2003 that the rollout happened. 
For its WLL services, Reliance Infocomm had laid out a 60,000 km Tb-capacity optic fiber network that currently covers 693 cities. 

The company placed an order for over 5 million CDMA lines with Lucent for offering WLL limited mobility services across its 17 basic service licensed areas. In addition, Reliance also picked up Nortel for its optical backbone network. In terms of CDMA handsets, those from LG, Samsung and Nokia, which are capable of porting J2ME applications are being recommended by Reliance.

On the wireline front Reliance Infocomm took strong strides in both NLD and ILD sectors. It has set up two PoPs in New York and Los Angeles for its ILD operations. It also has both submarine (FLAG) and satellite (NSS6) capacities. On the NLD front, Reliance has 17 switching PoPs and five gateways in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, and Ernakulam.

Reliance has put up two Internet Data Centres (IDCs) in Mumbai and Bangalore, which have got excellent responses from corporates. The Mumbai IDC is almost full to capacity with customers like BSE, Mahindra and Mahindra, Godrej, ICI, Pidilite, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Bank of Baroda, Global Trust Bank, Hewitt Associates, BHEL, Aptech, Syndicate Bank, and so on. Reliance is also in the process of setting up two other data centers, one each in Mumbai and Bangalore. 

Reliance WebWorld webstores are expected to be another major revenue generator for Reliance Infocomm. Though currently the 250 Webstores are selling only CDMA phones and services, by 15 August 2003 all these are supposed to be offering a bouquet of services including mobile ATMs, vehicle tracking through GIS, video-on-demand, and Internet surfing. 

The GSM service under the brand name ‘Reliance Mobile’ operates in seven circles and covers more than 13 states and 126 cities in India. These seven circles include Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam and Northeast. 

The company currently has around 60,050 subscribers in Orissa, 9,876 in Himachal Pradesh, 1.84 lakh in Bihar, 47,331 in Assam, 8,692 in Northeast, 71,938 in West Bengal and 1.58 lakh in Madhya Pradesh. Its major coverage lies in the eastern region of the country, where there is an opportunity to supplement the existing fixed line network that has remained
underdeveloped. The company has generated revenues of around Rs 400 crore last year and is expecting a substantial growth this year as well.