Reliance Communications is planning to increase its focus on CDMA services, the mobile technology it started telecom operations with, mainly in circles the company does not hold 3G spectrum.
“We are looking to accelerate the use of CDMA services in the next few quarters, especially in 3G dark circles. We have a clear roadmap from vendors that by 2015 every handset would support multi-mode technologies,” RCom President and Chief Executive Officer (wireless business) Gurdeep Singh said in an analysts conference call. At present, GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) are two dominant technologies for mobile communication.
The company, controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, now offers 3G services across 13 circles in the country and plans to extend it to the remaining nine circles soon. India is divided in 22 circles or telecom service areas.
Mobile technology majors such as Qualcomm are launching smartchips, while smartphone manufacturers such as HTC, Lenovo and Apple are introducing handsets that support both these technologies, he added.
GSM is a SIM-based operation, while CDMA is a bundled (operators tying up with handsets providers to offer both services and phones) offer. Increased adoption of EV-DO, a technology for CDMA networks that permits download as high as 2.4576 MBPS, would also help the services, he added.
On Monday, shares in RCom fell 4.95 per cent to close at ₹120.35 in a weak Mumbai market.