Following 3G auction RCom was in deep cash crisis, and that cash crush is still ongoing. RCom tried to offload stake from its mobile venture as well as from its tower arm – Reliance Infratel, but actually nothing happened. There are some updates from RCom, which seem to be concrete for the company’s future.
RCom is one of the leading data service provider among the mobile operators with presence on both GSM and CDMA platform. RCom offers EVDO as well as HSPA based wireless broadband services. As per recent data till December 2012 RCom has 27.6 million data subscribers over its 2G-GSM, 3G-GSM and CDMA (1X and EVDO) network. RCom has 6.1 million subscribers on its 3G network. Average data usage per customer stands at 280 MB per month. Non-voice (=data) revenue stands at 20.9% while the company expects to increase it to 40% in next 2-3 years as data services on 3G does take off. On wired platform RCom has 1.498 million broadband customers.
RCom is also working to reshape its CDMA business. After Reliance got GSM spectrum in 2008 the company started pushing GSM over CDMA. Also CDMA does not have strong ecosystem like handsets compared to GSM. But interestingly RCom has good number of loyal subscribers on CDMA platform, though many shifted from Reliance CDMA. Even Reliance stopped expanding its CDMA coverage for years.
At the same time Reliance’s dongle based EVDO services took a hit from Tata Teleservices’ Photon+ and SSTL’s MBlaze. In south circles BSNL rolled out EVDO with wide coverage and offers unlimited usage plans. All these lead to a roadblock to Reliance Netconnect+ services. It is true that TTSL and SSTL has more EVDO coverage than RCom. SSTL (MTS India) and TTSL both rolled out EVDO rev B services in the country.
So RCom is quite out of the track in CDMA arena, compared to its competitors. As it has been learnt that Rcom will migrate its voice customers to GSM, while CDMA will be for data – targeting smartphones, dongles, WiFi routers, tablets and PC.
RCom recently appoints Alcatel-Lucent to manage its wireless network, which will enable the company to lower 8-10% cost. Reliance is known to be in talks with three telecom companies to ink a passive infrastructure deal – tower sharing. One of these companies is seemed to be Reliance Industries owned Infotel Broadband who owns pan-India 4G spectrum. ET reported that RIL may buy stakes in Reliance Infratel. RCom CEO Gurdeep Singh thinks its global broadband network (FLAG Telecom) will provide added advantages for 4th generation networks.
muntazar February 9, 2013 at 2:33 pm
@adil
you are right in my number same 10kbps speed
but on my brother airtel sim on my same mobile speed is 20-27 kbps
which means airtel capped speed on some airtel customers number
shahid January 30, 2013 at 10:41 pm
100% right. same is the case with every one.
naveen January 30, 2013 at 11:04 am
I am happy with reliance networks because of their good tariffs…..and
data plans…..
rc14 gives 500mb
rc 96 gives 6gb
network,other network are so costly…both in tariff and internet packs
Chambath January 30, 2013 at 6:50 am
I don’t understand statement : “As it has been learnt that Rcom will migrate its voice customers to GSM, while CDMA will be for data” while both voice customers and data customers can be under CDMA network without any congestion.
Rudradeep January 31, 2013 at 7:08 am
Can be, but rcom don’t want to be. Low arpu customers will be moved to gsm. Rcom has many cdma users, who use imported cdma handsets (refer to rimweb.in). Rcom will try to keep them. On cdma rcom can provide nation wide evdo, wth smartphones n killer data tariffs.
Esmail January 30, 2013 at 1:46 am
I had since long seen this coming, I had even addressed this topic of CDMA being a favourable platform for data services in India on the article about SSTL asking for further cut in spectrum base price. in India 95% of cellular voice subscribers prefer GSM as a platform, thus there are limited takers of CDMA. Now that the government has slashed down the base price of 800MHz spectrum so drastically, and spectrum has been liberalized for use with any technology, its best that CDMA operators switch to pureplay data strategy and drop voice completely. If they choose to offer data services through EVDO Rev.B each block of 1.25MHz can give peak downlink speeds of 4.9Mbps, thus if all 4 blocks (1.25×4) are used for EVDO Rev.B it can offer speeds of 4.9×4= 19.6Mbps. which is comparable to 3G(HSPA+) and since pan India 800MHz spectrum is now much cheaper than pan India 2100MHz spectrum they can offer much cheaper data tariff in comparison to 3G. Its the best utilisation of CDMA spectrum, and the companies can offer this through data cards, sims for CDMA tablets, wifi routers.
Soon we may see TATA and MTS also follow in the footsteps of Reliance CDMA
Amit Kumar January 29, 2013 at 10:14 pm
just becoz Reliance is going through a cash crunch period, does it warrant them to fraudlently deduct the balance from the subscribers’ prepaid account ??? Y’day Rs. 3 /- was deducted from my account by activating some service on their own. Is TRAI really ignorant about these prevalent fraudlent practices. Has any solution been provided by them ??? Do they expect everyone to make a complaint to CC, nodal officers or PG Portal. Why aren’t officials of the telecom operators put behind bars for such practices. Do we have any law in the country so as to protect the consumers or are we just a rogue nation where the mango people are taken for granted ??? Moreover, accessing 2G service for the last 10 days or so has been a quite painful experience and whenever I make a complaint to CC regarding connectivity issue, I’m asked to clear cache and cookies (sic ). And today it has crossed all the limit as there was almost no connectivity throughout the day.
LAC = c7f7
Arka January 30, 2013 at 7:25 am
@Amit ,U can complain in PG portal.It may be a solution for u.
Tharun George January 30, 2013 at 10:15 am
This problem is faced by almost all reliance customers. As soon as we browse the internet they activate some vas and take money from account till account becomes zero.
If you called the CC immediately they will refund the money. But its really a very hard to call CC every time. Only solution I found was to keep balance at zero and browse internet.
As per reliance CC this is problem is when we click some ads on internet. I think some serious issue with reliance VAS system.
shahid January 30, 2013 at 11:07 pm
@Amit kumar Bro u r absolutely right. only way to evade this problem is to activate dnd. rcom officials are corporate theives.
Saurabh Gupta January 29, 2013 at 7:00 pm
there are only 2 problems with reliance 1st its GSM network 2nd its balance deduction tactics other things doesn’t matter much for customers so they stay away from reliance GSM
samiran January 29, 2013 at 6:31 pm
Last time I try with reliance 2G so pathetic connectivity speed less than 1-100kb.Sometime automatic get disconnected however network availability is more than 80%.
I also try with airtel speed is good upto 200kb network availability more than 80% but cost is high.
Final decision was aircel low cost and superb connectivity more than 9hr constant speed upto 130kb although network availability less than 40%.
Pankaj January 29, 2013 at 4:48 pm
Right now i m using Reliance 248 2G internet plan which gives 20GB for 3 months. I m quite happy with the speed. I recharged it for 2nd time and it gives me a avg speed of 15-19kbps. No other operators in my area r giving such amount of data,,,, 20GB. Although i lik most the speed of BSNL, i used it for almost more than a year regularly, but left it after shuffling of prices and data amount…
drkavin January 29, 2013 at 7:07 pm
at 20 kbps even 2 gb is tooooo much… hope ur not ch(j)oking with 20 gb…..
Tharun George January 30, 2013 at 10:11 am
I get 225kbps that is up to 30KB/s download speed on reliance. Its very good. I can open at least 5 website same time in 10 seconds.
Adil January 29, 2013 at 2:47 pm
Here in up west airtel is worst it has caped the speed of 2g at 80kbps i.e.10Kbps and that too on 3G mode that s the true colour of this big cheater operator
shahid January 29, 2013 at 2:39 pm
reliance 2g speed is capped at 64 kbps in j&k. while other operators r providing 2g at 128 kbps. so no one is intrested in using reliance 2g.
UNAUTHORISED BALANCE DEDUCTION which is going on in reliance gsm right from day one is still continueing which is forcing customers to join other operators. If this balance deduction scam is not stopped reliance will loose all its customers.
Padmapada January 29, 2013 at 12:44 pm
Reliance is a worst network in odisha . 2g internet speed is very worst if we open google page it takes around 5mins but 3g speed is good but not afford by everyone specialy for students and middle class people .
Tharun George January 29, 2013 at 12:31 pm
I use reliance 2G internet. They give 20Gb for Rs 248 for 3 months. It has good speed most times at 225kbps. Also in my city Netconnect+ has only coverage compared to Tata Photon or MTS or BSNL EVDO.
Since reliance has international sea cables it can offer internet at cheaper rates than anyone. Reliance currently offer 4Mbps unlimited broadband at Rs 1099 in many cities in India.
Arka January 29, 2013 at 12:42 pm
from which circle u get this offer?
Tharun George January 29, 2013 at 1:59 pm
Kerala. I thinks available in all circles. Check reliance website.
Rudradeep January 29, 2013 at 1:06 pm
Once I tried reliance 2g, it was capped at 64kbps.
Tharun George January 29, 2013 at 2:01 pm
I checked with MDMA and network profile is set to 256kbps.
In my city only Docomo, Reliance and Aircel has full EDGE speed.
dskushwaha January 30, 2013 at 6:37 am
In Chandigarh I get 30-60kbps on RGSM 2G whereas on Idea network I get speed of 90-125kbps.
Pranajit January 29, 2013 at 2:55 pm
what you have said is true about Reliance Broadband. Had there been no bottle necking,the speed would have been higher.
(
But unfortunately,Thunder plan is not available everywhere. For example,At Kolkata, it is restricted to fewer place.Even all prime locations don’t have the feasibility.
teletalk January 29, 2013 at 12:31 pm
yes i agree with you because in gujarat reliance have few custmers compare to other service providers and if we see in cdma and gsm segment reliance have no good service for its customers like poor customer care service and not attractive schemes for its customers also