With the Beijing Olympics 2008 starting from Friday, three of the major Indian telecom service providers � Reliance Communications [Get Quote], BPL Mobile and Tata Communications � are launching services aimed at tapping the communication potential of the event.

This will, perhaps, be the first time that Indian telecom companies are offering services for a global event and that too for global and roaming subscribers.

Reliance Globalcom, the subsidiary overseeing Anil Ambani-controlled RCom's global operations, is offering a special-edition international SIM card across 12 countries, aimed at sports fans travelling to China.

The card enables Indian sports fans travelling to China to make and receive calls at rates starting from Rs 10 a minute. For people from other countries, the card offers roaming rates that are lower by 70-85 per cent compared with rates of other operators.

BPL Mobile has launched a wireless access protocol portal on its handsets, which lets fans track the games on their mobile phones. The service, Olympics@Cafe, lets subscribers track the schedule of events, medal tallies, news, action-packed pictures, trivia, profiles of sportspersons, records made and previous ones, among others. The company has tied up with Mobile ESPN for the service.

Tata Communications is launching pre-paid roaming and its Intelligent CAMEL eXchange is a service that the company claims will reduce roaming charges. It also said four global mobile operators and a Chinese telecom major would use Tata Communications' services. The service will allow the Chinese carrier to offer in-bound, pre-paid roaming for its roaming partners in time for the Olympic Games starting later this week in Beijing.