Posted on November 13, 2008, at 1:42 am .
Anyone who wonders why RIM’s recent troubles bringing BlackBerrys to India were such a big deal need only look at these numbers to understand. According to the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI), India’s GSM networks added a record breaking 7.7 million net customers in October, bringing India’s total GSM base to 241.4 million. These figures, however, do not include the GSM subscriber base from Reliance Communications – which although a predominantly CDMA operator has a growing GSM base as well. Adding Reliance Communications’ estimated 9.2 million GSM subscribers would bring India’s total base to over 250 million GSM customers.
250 million GSM subscribers – just think about that number for a second. That’s almost the population of the United States. How much would it improve RIM’s bottom line to grab even a small percentage of that number?
|via CN|
Posted on September 18, 2008, at 8:52 am .
Two different Indian carriers announced new information for a wide variety of BlackBerrys today. In news that will only make the rumored AT&T Bold delay sting more, Airtel has announced the launch of the BlackBerry Bold on their network, priced at Rs. 34,990 and available by the end of September.
In addition, Reliance mobile has introduced the first prepaid BlackBerry service in India today for no less than six different devices. Reliance claims that this announcement will help expand BlackBerry interest to the 200 million prepaid users in India.
Reliance Prepaid BlackBerry Support
* The BlackBerry 8830 World Edition
* The BlackBerry Curve 8330
* The BlackBerry Curve 8300
* The BlackBerry Pearl 8100
* The BlackBerry Pearl 8130
* The BlackBerry 8703e
Read the Ultimate BlackBerry Bold Review (with full device specs)
(via RIM, Ciol)
Posted on July 9, 2008, at 8:29 am .
It looks like the tentative resolution of security issues in India has been enough to for Reliance to release the BlackBerry 8330. Reliance’s CDMA network was launched last September, so it’s is still pretty new, but it’s good to see some of the more recent devices finding their way over there. The CDMA Curve is available in 500 stores across India for Rs 25,990. Hit up Reliance’s website to find the one closes to you.
Posted on September 10, 2007, at 2:54 pm .
Reliance is breaking out a ton of BlackBerry action in India today, announcing a whole new network for their devices. Spearheading the push is the BlackBerry 8830, allowing India’s corporate users to get better coverage than existing GSM. A CDMA BlackBerry expansion has been in the cards since May, and now that it’s come to fruit, we can see what was going on earlier with that massive expansion. Reliance will be offering the BlackBerry 8830 for Rs 33,990 on their shiny new network.
Posted on August 20, 2007, at 8:13 am .
Indian carrier Reliance is whetting its lips as talks progress on getting their mitts on competitor Aircel.They might not be names you’re too familiar with, but Reliance is one of the biggest carriers in India, and Aircel is the 6th. largest carrier in India. The acquisition would significantly expand Reliance’s GSM network through Aircel’s licences, as well as adding Aircel’s 6.2 million base subscribers to their fold. Last we heard from Reliance, they were working on a massive network expansion, and now topped off with this acquisition, Reliance is making huge strides.
Posted on July 12, 2007, at 9:59 am .
India’s Reliance Communications has signed Alcatel-Lucent on to expand its CDMA and GSM networks for over $400 million. Heh, for once India gets to outsource someone else. After setting up the hardware and integration management necessary to expand Reliance’s operations, 20,000 towns and 600,000 villages will fall under their coverage.
“The expansion of the Reliance network, particularly in rural areas, will help improve the lives of millions in India”, [said Patricia Russo, CEO, Alcatel-Lucent].
Posted on June 28, 2007, at 1:38 pm .
While we might be looking to emerging markets in China, India and Africa as the reason why so many people are packing mobiles these days, the market may not be as much of a wireless promised land as they had been made out to be. Strategy Analytics has reported today that the global subscriber churn rate has risen for the ninth quarter in a row to 2.5% in Q1 2007. North America and Europe are pretty stable on this front, but Reliance disconnected 6 million customers last quarter, and Malaysian carriers had to disconnect about 20% of their subscribers in an effort to register all accounts. The big reason for such drastic measures is the prepaid nature of mobile business in these markets.
David Kerr, Vice President, Global Wireless Practice, adds, “The increase in churn highlights the challenge of managing subscriber growth in many prepaid-centric emerging markets. In these markets, where new connections involve simply placing a new SIM card into one’s existing handset, competitive activity is having an increasingly detrimental impact on subscriber behavior and churn levels.”
As much as we might moan about being locked into plans for years on end, it certainly makes for a more stable industry.
