India's second-largest mobile-phone carrier, plans to extend its wireless network to Sri Lanka in partnership with the island nation's Electroteks Global Networks Ltd.
The two companies will initially invest $200 million to start wireless operations based on the global system for mobile communications, or GSM, technology, by November, Electroteks Chief Executive Officer B.A.C. Abeywardana said by telephone from his Colombo office. Gaurav Wahi, a spokesman for Mumbai- based Reliance Communications, declined to comment today.
Reliance joins larger rival Bharti Airtel Ltd. in planning a foray into Sri Lanka, where fewer than four out of 10 people had wireless connections at the end of last year. Bharti, India's largest mobile-phone operator, postponed its plans to start wireless services in Sri Lanka to September, from this month, due to delays in setting up its network.
``We are targeting 600,000 customers during the first year of operations, and 25 percent of the GSM market in the following year,'' Abeywardana said. Mumbai-based Reliance holds an 85 percent stake in the venture, he said. Electroteks is a closely held company.
Reliance plans to invest 12 billion rupees ($300 million) over the next 3 years in the venture, the Economic Times reported earlier today, citing people it didn't name. The new company's mobile-phone network will have a capacity for 5 million connections, the newspaper said.
Bharti, which is based in New Delhi, would become the fifth carrier in Sri Lanka, which has a population of 20 million.
