Reliance Communications, Qualcomm to collaborate on CDMA2000 expansion

Mumbai: Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company, Reliance Communications and advanced wireless technologies and data solutions developer, Qualcomm Inc, today announced plans to expand the deployment of the latter''s CDMA2000 technology in India. At the same time, Reliance has also announced its CDMA2000 network expansion, covering more than 20,000 towns in India.

The two companies will collaborate to leverage the capabilities of the CDMA2000 technology India, the world''s fastest growing telecom market. They companies plan to address the increasing needs of rural, urban and enterprise consumers through the introduction of even more affordable and feature-rich handsets, wireless Internet data cards and a host of data applications.

Reliance''s network expansion is among the largest and fastest infrastructure deployment project. Once completed, it is expected to contribute to the country meeting its teledensity targets to provide telecom services across thousands of villages, which do not enjoy any connectivity today. To address the needs of the enterprise segment, Reliance has launched Reliance Netconnect, which offers uninterrupted, anytime, anywhere wireless Internet connectivity in more than 8,000 towns and 300,000 villages and also along major highways and railway routes in India.

"We are committed to the continued explosive growth of telecommunication services in India and with Qualcomm our leadership in the domestic market will strengthen even further," said Anil Dhirubhai Ambani, chairman, Reliance Communications Limited. "We remain focused on achieving ever higher levels of profitable growth, by delivering long term value to our consumers."

"Reliance is a key driver of the fastest growing telecom market in the world, and we are pleased to enhance our long standing collaboration with them," said Dr. Paul E. Jacobs, chief executive officer of Qualcomm. "Qualcomm is committed to support Reliance in its mission to grow the CDMA2000 market in India. Having jointly achieved several milestones in driving down the costs of voice telephony in India, our latest goal is to bring consumers an exciting new range of data offerings in mobile broadband, including multimedia and entertainment."

Reliance Communications ranks among the top 10 CDMA2000 operators worldwide.