On December 28, 2003 Reliance changed the face of telecom in India with an affordable mobile phone service. Their business model was compelling; ‘phone call at the cost of a post card’. Within five years Reliance has managed a 60 million customer base. Earlier, Reliance bet on CDMA that accounts for less than 20% of the global mobile telecom, business. On December 30, 2008, Reliance started GSM service – that accounts for 80% of the world’s mobile population.
With investment of Rs 10,000 Crores ($ 2 billion) Reliance communications has launched the service in 11,000 towns within a year of getting its license (January 2008). They also introduced “customer experience” card that permits free calls worth Rs 5/day for 90 days, for a very low Rs 25/ – entry fee. It will be interesting to see the way Reliance grows in this segment in the next 12 months.
