Shyam Telelink launches Rajasthan services

Jaipur, Sep 30 (IANS) Shyam Telelink Ltd, a joint venture between Shyam Group of India and Sistema SSA of Russia, Tuesday launched its CDMA mobile services in Rajasthan.

The services under the brand name 'Rainbow' are available to the customers from Tuesday at prices lower than the competitors, as Shyam Telelinks officials said.

'Our game plan is to keep everything very simple and provide the best offers with no hidden costs,' Shyam Telelink president and CEO Vsevolod Rozanov told reporters.

The company has invested $1 billion in the Indian telecom industry and plans to invest $4 billion-$7 billion in the next few years.

This investment will be in different sectors of the Indian economy depending upon the opportunities, Rozanov said.

Shyam Telelink's network installation has been done by global telecom major ZTE Ltd, which delivered the project on a turnkey basis.

'The total contract value for network installation with ZTE is evaluated at $27 million for 800 sites,' a company official told IANS.

Asked where the company will next launch its services, Shyam Group promoter Rajiv Mehrotra said: 'The next launch of services will be in southern parts of the country followed by north and then east.'

The company plans to invest $1.5 billion next year and will also rollout services in 12 circles, Sistema SSA chairman Vladimir Evtushenkov said.

Shyam Telelink has pan-India CDMA license and spectrum, and will roll out pan-India operations in a phased manner.

'We are also waiting for mobile number portability and cost-based tariff to be approved by the government as it will facilitate our business in a big way,' Mehrotra said.

Rainbow as part of its inaugural package is offering a colour handset with free SIM, free activation and life time validity at Rs.999. Under the offer, calls from one Rainbow network to another will be free and other local calls and messages will be charged 50 paise.

Moreover, long distance calls and STD messages will be charged Re.1.

The company as part of its corporate social responsibility has also donated Rs.510,000 towards the chief minister's relief fund to help the victims of the Jodhpur stampede that took place in a temple Tuesday.