Reliance Comm to enter PDA mart

Reliance Communications is planning to enter high-end wireless data services market in the country, which is currently dominated by BlackBerry devices, in an attempt to increase its average revenue per user (ARPU).

The Anil Ambani-controlled company is launching a slew of hand-held mobile computing devices, which are expected to hit the markets early next month.

The company is in various stages of negotiations with personal hand-held device and personal digital assistant (PDA) manufacturers across the world.

These include a host of manufacturers, such as Motorola in the US, Nokia in Finland, NEC and Matsushita in Japan, LG and Samsung in Korea and other handset makers in Taiwan and China, sources close to the development said.

This will help Reliance Communications increase its ARPUs, as blended ARPUs of CDMA operators are in the range of Rs 270 a month, much lower when compared with those of PDA users. The ARPUs of PDA users are around of Rs 3,000 a month.

When contacted, a Reliance Communications' spokesperson declined to comment.

The CDMA major will initially focus on 'Push Mail' services that automatically download or send e-mails when the device is in a network coverage area, relieving the user of connecting to the network everytime he wants to check his mails.

At present, there is an estimated 50,000 push mail users in the country, which is expected to increase to over a million in the next 12 months.

Introduction of devices that have corporate data applications, such as web browsing, internet faxing, instant messaging (IM), supporting of a number of mail accounts on a single device, apart from the regular personal digital assistant (PDA) functionalities, such as Microsoft Office (including Word, PowerPoint and Excel), are also on the company's agenda.