Reliance Info to invest Rs 300 cr in West Bengal

Reliance Infocomm, which offers CDMA mobile services under the Reliance India Mobile (RIM) brand, will be investing Rs 300 crore to connect 350 towns in West Bengal, said S P Shukla, president wireless products and services.

Shukla yesterday announced the rollout of its RIM phase II plan for West Bengal, expanding its network to 180 new towns, in addition to the existing coverage in 15 cities and towns.

Shukla said, "We will reach to north Bengal and the hills, including Siliguri and Darjeeling, in response to a stupendous demand from these areas. Our services will now also be available in Sikkim."

He said, the company has a subscriber base of about five lakh in the state and it is expected to jump manifold as more and more towns are covered.

Shukla said, the company had invested more than Rs 1,000 crore in the Kolkata circle since its launch.

The expansion covers all district headquarters in West Bengal and the company aims to cover all 350 towns eventually. Shukla said, around 200 towns would be covered by the end of the year.

The area covered by the network would increase 10 times, covering six national highways and 15 state highways and six railway routes throughout the state.

The company claims that a recent survey showed that the usage of Reliance IndiaMobile phones for data transfer was on the rise.