Reliance Infocomm, which claims to have signed in over three million post-paid subscribers for its code division multiple access services across the country, is now planning to launch prepaid services by the end of this month.
Reliance has tied up with the United States-based networking major, Comverse Technology, to offer the services. A technical team of Comverse India is working on the project.
The countdown for prepaid services has already been initiated at various offices of Reliance Infocomm across the country.
"We expect the prepaid services sometime this month and there is a strong possibility that by next week, the launch will be announced in major cities. The only thing now being discussed among the top company officials is whether to price the entry-level cost at Rs 501 such as the widely-publicised Monsoon Hungama or to reduce a little bit to lure first-time users," a source close to the company said.
According to the source, Reliance may opt for asking an initial payment of Rs 501 for prepaid subscribers along with the handsets. In the second phase, it will introduce prepaid coupons at prices as low as Rs 101 and Rs 51.
"The company may not even reduce the entry-level cost below Rs 501 as it may hit its ongoing post-paid subscription schemes. After launching the Rs 501 scheme, a large number of subscribers who had earlier taken connections paying Rs 3,000 and above, objected and some even demanded a refund. But this time, it will be played safe," the source said.
Reliance officials, however, were not available for comments.
The prepaid services of Reliance will work on the basis of WIN-2, a proven technology across the world and being used by most CDMA service providers in major foreign countries.
"Last December, Reliance signed an agreement with Comverse, a unit of Comverse Technology, which is one of the major suppliers of network-based multimedia enhanced communications services, to enable prepaid and voicemail services for its CDMA wireless communications in India. Under this technology, the subscriber will not require a SIM card. Instead, there will be prepaid coupons which can be recharged by typing selected numbers on one's handsets," Sanatjit Singh Bhasin, technical head of Comverse India, said.
Bhasin told Business Standard, "The system will run on WIN-2 technology. It is a modular, technology-independent prepaid solution, which seamlessly integrates into networks composed of multi-vendor switches implementing CDMA technologies."
It is also learnt that after examining proposals from various expert companies in this field, Reliance selected Comverse after a long and rigorous technical examination of its voicemail and prepaid platforms, as well as the business benefits that the solution offers.
The Comverse pre-paid system, which can be configured to run in all major wireless network environments, will support the IS-826 IN standard in the Reliance Infocomm network.
Reliance plans to utilise the flexibility of the Comverse prepaid system to offer a variety of different features and services in each market such as distance-based charging, concurrent tariff schemes and also VPN capabilities," a Comverse official said.
"Comverse technology will not only be for using prepaid services effectively but also offers a rich set of service features adaptable to virtually any signalling environment, where it is Intelligent Network or pre-IN based. Reliance prepaid subscribers will also be able to exploit this technology for various multimedia related services which may come as a bundle with the new prepaid connections," the official said.
Both Comverse India and Reliance officials denied to share information about the terms and conditions of the agreement between the company, including the financials.
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