Infocomm to place 1 mn handsets order

Posted on | September 17, 2005 |

Reliance Infocomm is planning to place an order for 1 million mobile handsets in the next two months, needed largely for its expansion in smaller cities and rural areas. It would be one of the largest orders by any telecom service provider in India, for which the company has initiated talks with global handset manufacturers like Nokia, LG and Samsung.

The company has operations in over 3,750 towns, of which 3,500 small towns and talukas, while it has covered 1.40 lakh villages. Earlier this year, the company had procured 2 million handsets of different makes and this proposed new acquisition will take the total number of mobile phones purchased to 3 million in 2006.

This procurement is the largest in India due to the sheer size of the order, however this is not the largest in the world as China Mobile Xingjiang had placed similar orders earlier, while South Korea Telecom (SKT) was also looking at placing similar orders.

Reliance’s way of doing business has always been big, in whatever it does. This not only affects the competition but also helps it leverage the scale with its suppliers.

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