Brief

RCom introduces Netconnect Broadband Plus

Reliance Communications has announced the rollout of its CDMA wireless broadband service, Reliance Netconnect Broadband Plus. Netconnect Broadband Plus has a downlink speed of up to 3.1 Mbps and a separate uplink speed of up to 1.8 Mbps, offering 30% higher downlink rate in comparison to any other wireless broadband offering.

This service will be available in 35 cities with seamless handover to high speed 1x service covering 20,000 towns and 4.5 lakh villages as well as all major road and rail routes across the country, in this manner covering 99% of India’s Internet population.

The company will retail Netconnect Broadband Plus in 12,000 IT retail outlets across India as well as 2,300 exclusive Reliance Communication retail stores and nearly 240 Reliance World outlets.

Mahesh Prasad, President, Reliance Communications, said, “The launch of Netconnect Broadband Plus is an important milestone for Reliance and will act as a catalyst in the government’s effort to drive broadband penetration in India. Reliance Netconnect Broadband Plus will be the inflection point for the Indian Internet industry and would enable broadband access to millions of online Indians.”

Reliance Netconnect Broadband Plus will significantly enhance the broadband coverage in India and make broadband Internet available to customers in many areas and localities that have been waiting for years to be broadband enabled. This service will be available in the retail outlets from March 17, 2009 onwards.

The product is launched in two Plug and Play USB device variants. Netconnect Broadband Plus is targeting two major segments—about six million mobile users who need Internet access on the move through their laptop, and about eight million Home PC users who access entertainment and educational content.

The wireless broadband service will ride on Reliance Communication’s extensive pan-India, next generation, integrated, convergent digital network spanning over 175,000 kilometers of fibre optic cable systems. This network is capable of supporting best-of-class services spanning the entire communications value chain.

The company is adopting an aggressive pricing strategy to enhance the market penetration of its wireless broadband service. It is launching the product starting at a monthly subscription charge of Rs 299 on a pay on use basis. The company will also offer an Unlimited Night plan at Rs 499 per month. Reliance Communications is targeting a potential 15 million users (includes six million laptop users, one million 1X CDMA Datacard users and eight million home PC users) across India for its wireless broadband service.