Reliance Netconnect Broadband Plus

Reliance Communications launches ‘Netconnect Broadband Plus’ India’s fastest wireless Internet service in Mangalore and Manipal

* Honourable Mayor of Mangalore Sh Shankar Bhat inaugurated the service
* To drive broadband penetration in the coastal belt
* Soft handover to high-speed 1x service   across 2000 towns and 18000 villages across the state

Reliance Communications Limited (BSE: RCOM) today announced the roll-out of its CDMA wireless broadband service, Reliance Netconnect Broadband Plus in Mangalore and Manipal.  With this the number of towns where this high speed service is available in Karnataka has increased to Four including Bangalore & Mysore which are currently operational and nationally in over 50 places. India’s fastest Internet service, Netconnect Broadband Plus has a downlink speed of upto 3.1 Mbps and a separate uplink speed of upto 1.8 Mbps, offering 30%  higher downlink rate in comparison to any other wireless broadband offering. This makes Netconnect Broadband Plus best suited for video streaming, video surveillance, rich media content & superior Internet browsing.

As part of this launch, Reliance is embarking on the largest and most aggressive roll-out of a broadband internet service in India. Netconnect Broadband Plus 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 covering 99% of India’s Internet population. Reliance Netconnect Broadband Plus will be available in 33 Reliance Mobile stores, 11 Reliance world outlets and 200 IT outlets across Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore, Manipal and Suratkal. The product is launched in two Plug and Play USB device variants.

In a statement released to the media on the occasion of the launch in Mangalore, Mr R Swaminathan, Hub Head – Karnataka Circle, Reliance Communications said, “ The launch of Netconnect Broadband Plus in Mangalore region, the educational hub of Karnataka is a significant initiative as there is an inherent  demand for such a high technology product.  Now people from Mangalore and Manipal can beat the low speed traffic with High speed Netconnect and do their online activities such as VPN connectivity, heavy file transfer, and video download etc seamlessly at extraordinarily lower prices.” He added

India is amongst the lowest broadband penetrated countries in the world (0.5% in India versus 21.9% in US, 27.4% in Korea and 3.7% in China). India’s poor broadband penetration can be attributed to the limitations of wireline Internet like last mile connectivity, right of way issues, poor quality of copper, time taken to deploy the network and reach customer premises. Reliance Netconnect Broadband Plus will significantly enhance the broadband coverage in India and make broadband Internet available to customers in many areas and localities who have been waiting for years to be broadband enabled. Easy availability and instant activation of Netconnect Broadband Plus would be a welcome change for the netizens who wait for weeks or months before they get connected to broadband.

Netconnect Broadband Plus is targeting two major segments:

1. About 6 million Road Warriors who need Internet access on the move through their laptop
2. About 8 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.

It is estimated that out of the total 13 million Internet subscribers in the country, the current broadband penetration in India stands merely at 6.5 million. Reliance’s wireless broadband service is expected to accelerate the broadband penetration in India. Reliance is adopting an aggressive pricing strategy to enhance the market penetration of its wireless broadband service. The company is launching the product starting at a monthly subscription charge of Rs 299 offering complete freedom to 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 6 million laptop users, 1 million 1X CDMA Datacard users and 8 million home PC users) across India for its wireless broadband service.