Reliance Infotel to Offer Tablet for 3,500

Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Infotel, which is the only company with pan India BWA (4G/Broadband wireless access) spectrum, will offer LTE tablets for as low as 3,500.

Reliance was planning to launch the cheap LTE tablets earlier. And there would be bundled plans accompanied by these low cost subsidized tablets for as low as 10 for one GB of data. The service will however be launched only by end of 2012.

 

This delay is mainly on account of the TD-LTE technology being not mature enough to be launched within 2011, with very few devices supporting the technology. There will be USB dongles, Wi-Fi LTE Modems apart from the Tablets, so that all sorts of people with all sorts of devices will be able to access its services.

The biggest threat of the service will be faced by 3G service provider who have paid much higher amount. For instance, RIL paid 13,000 crore for 20 MHz spectrum in all 22 circles while for just 5 MHz Bharti Airtel paid 12,295 crore for spectrum in just 13 circles.

Therefore the ability of 3G service providers to compete with RIL on price would be limited. Also facing a stiff competition would be the CDMA players like Reliance communication, Tata Communication and MTS, which will have to substantially lower their tariffs in order to compete and also device new strategies in terms of device subsidization.

Reliance Infotel is now working hard to devise strategies and the company is also in talks with several device makers for sourcing devices that suit different consumer segments.