Reliance Infocomm in PCO push

Huge commissions being offered to PCO operators

Reliance Infocomm is once again giving incumbents Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) a run for their money. It has set up close to 75,000 public call offices (PCOs) across the country. This will be later scaled up to over three lakh by the end of this financial year. Its PCOs will cover at least 230 cities and, eventually, cover 5,000 towns.

A Reliance Infocomm spokesperson, however, declined to comment on the matter. India with a population of over one billion has over 1.3 million PCOs. Besides BSNL and MTNL, Tata Teleservices (TTSL) has about 40,000 PCOs in Andhra Pradesh.

Sources close to the development indicated that Reliance Infocomm has already put its entire PCO business into a separate business unit. This is being done in order to give it a much needed push and compete in the already crowded PCO market.

In order to grab a substantial market share in the PCO segment, Reliance Infocomm has started offering huge commission to PCO operators. Besides, it is also offering additional incentives to existing PCO operators who wish to shift to Reliance Infocomm.

Sources claim that Reliance is offering as much as 30 per cent commission compared with the traditional 20 per cent offered by the state-owned telcos.

The business strategy also involves "urging a MTNL/ BSNL PCO operators to surrender at least one of the extra line/ PCO connection back to the operator and opt for Reliance's connection, thereby earning extra commission".

Reliance is expanding its services to about 5,000 towns in a phased manner. The second phase of the expansion will result in its telecom services being available to over 100,000 villages. Meanwhile, Reliance Infocomm is planning to roll out broadband services within a few weeks. Broadband will involve access to high-speed connectivity to make transactions efficient and functions seamless.