Reliance Info eyes larger pie from villages

Reliance Infocomm Limited is focusing on villages to increase its market share in the telecom sector in Andhra Pradesh.

"Currently, we have about 18.5 lakh customers across the state, which accounts for about 22 per cent of the market share in the state. We now want to focus on the rural market to increase our share," R Balachandran, chief executive officer (Andhra Pradesh), Reliance Infocomm, told mediapersons here on Tuesday.

There was a tremendous scope in villages for both mobile and wireless phones, and Reliance already has sufficient infrastructure facilities to meet the rural demand, he said.

Of the total 18.5 lakh Reliance phone connections, the share of rural India was about 15 per cent, which was expected to increase significantly in the coming years, he added.

Apart from the 400 towns in the state, the company is covering about 9,500 villages in Andhra. "During the last financial year, we added about 7.5 lakh new connections in the state. With more new connections, our subscriber base is likely to touch the 2-million mark over the next few months," Balachandran said.

On the company's future plans for Andhra Pradesh, he said Reliance Infocomm would continue to create additional infrastructure facilities in the state.

"We have embarked on the third phase of expansion plan. Over the next two years, we will increase our infrastructure by 60-70 per cent," he said.

Reliance Info has laid a 9,500-kilometre optic fibre cable in the state.