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Technology Stocks : Qualcomm Moderated Thread - please read rules before posting -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Biddle who wrote (30491)	12/27/2002 4:23:31 PM
From: John Biddle	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 196683

Reliance Infocomm plans to double its India network It will hire around 100,000 programmers as it seeks to wire up 10m offices and 80m homes nationwide news.google.com (NEW DELHI) Reliance Infocomm Ltd plans to double its network and hire as many as 100,000 programmers as the phone services unit of India's biggest non- state company seeks to wire up 10 million offices and 80 million homes next year. Reliance's 60,000-km network, which switched on yesterday, will serve as a backbone for the company's telephone and Internet access services. The fibre optic network, Asia's biggest, will be extended to 116,000 km to connect homes and offices in 640,000 villages and 2,500 towns, the company said, without giving a date for the expansion. The service starts in 45 to 60 days. 'Reliance Infocomm will ensure that by 2003, India has the most modern information and communication infrastructure,' Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd, said in a statement. The cornerstone of Reliance's phone services is a city-wide, limited-range mobile service that uses Qualcomm Inc's code-division multiple access, or CDMA, technology, which allows the company to offer services at a fourth lower than the cheapest rates offered by existing mobile-phone companies using the global system for communications, or GSM, standard. Infocomm's service, called Reliance IndiaMobile, pits it against GSM operators, including partners of AT&T Corp, Singapore Telecommunications, and Hutchison Telecommunications for a share in a market expected to grow more than 1 1/2 times to US$12.6 billion in three years to March 2005, according to research group Frost & Sullivan. GSM cellular operators bid for licences, pay entry fees, radio spectrum charges, and an access charge equal to local call rates to connect to fixed-line phone networks, of which CDMA mobile services are a part. GSM operators charge for incoming calls while they are free on CDMA phones. That disparity prompted GSM operators to approach the country's Supreme Court in a bid to block the service. In a Dec 17 ruling, the apex court directed a special telecommunications disputes tribunal to judge the case anew. Reliance said it would charge a three-minute outgoing call on a CDMA phone service, which works in an area where local call charges apply, 1.20 rupees (3.5 Singapore cents) or 0.1 rupee if a call lasts 15 seconds. A one-minute local long-distance call will cost 0.4 rupee. All incoming calls will be free. Consumers will have to use handsets imported by Reliance and delivered home free of cost, complete with a one-year warranty and a free three-year insurance. Details on the charges for the plans Reliance is offering were not immediately available. - Bloomberg