Mumbai - March 17, 2010: Reliance Communications (BSE:
RCOM), India’s largest and only telecom operator offering
nationwide CDMA and GSM mobile services, has forged a
partnership with Polycom Inc. (Nasdaq: PLCM), the global leader
in tele-presence, video and voice solutions, to introduce
world's first wireless, high-resolution video conferencing
service. The service will be marketed through Reliance ADA
Group's retail arm, Reliance Webstore Limited.
Bundling the easy-to-use Polycom QDX 6000? video conferencing
system with dedicated VPN connectivity through the Reliance
Netconnect Broadband+ wireless broadband data card, the service
significantly lowers the price barrier to adopting video
conferencing and is expected to be a mass enabler of video
conferencing usage across multiple industry verticals in India.
The jointly developed offering will extend affordable,
plug-and-play video conferencing to organizations of all sizes,
enabling them to realize immediate productivity and efficiency
benefits from real-time, face-to-face visual communication.
Besides small and medium enterprises (SMEs), education, event
management, media & entertainment, and hospitality are among the
sectors likely to take advantage of the flexible and affordable
video conferencing service developed by Reliance and Polycom.
Reliance Webstore Limited already offers wired video
conferencing services to over 1500 corporate clients through its
network of over 200 video conference suites at Reliance World
stores across the country.
Commenting on its partnership with Polycom, Mr Sarup
Chowdhary, Director & CEO, Reliance Webstore Limited said, “Reliance
World operates the world's largest network of video conferencing
suites. Through our alliance with Polycom, we are making video
conferencing a simple plug-and-play operation that can be
deployed and used virtually anytime, anywhere.”
The Polycom QDX 6000 video conferencing system delivers
high-resolution video and CD-quality audio, along with
simple-to-use content sharing capabilities – even at a bandwidth
of 256 kbps. Customers of the wireless video conferencing
service will be able to connect to any industry standards-based
video conferencing system, anywhere in the world. The wireless
nature of the service also makes it suitable for out-of-office
events. Using this service, even family events like weddings,
parties and ceremonies can be webcast live by event managers on
a pay-per-use basis.
Mr Hansjoerg Wagner, Vice President and Managing Director,
Polycom Asia Pacific, said, “The wireless video
conferencing solution jointly developed by Polycom and Reliance
is truly a unique innovation on a global scale. Although mobile
broadband exists in many markets, India is the first country in
the world to deliver a wireless video conferencing service.
Through our partnership with Reliance Communications, and our
relationships with other leading vendors in the Unified
Communications ecosystem, Polycom sees that visual
communications will be ubiquitous within two to three years.”
Leveraging Reliance Webstore's
extensive retail reach, the service is being commercially rolled
out in over 40 Indian cities. The service will be expanded to
more cities in a phased manner. The Wireless Video Conferencing
service will ride on Reliance Communications’ telecom
infrastructure backbone. Reliance Communications’ extensive
pan-India, next generation, integrated, convergent digital
network spans over 190,000 route kilometers of fibre optic cable
systems. This network is capable of supporting best-of-class
services spanning the entire communications value chain.
Mr. Vrajesh Shelat, Head – Wireless Data Business, Reliance
Communications Ltd. said “Our robust pan-India network is
equipped to deliver a lifelike video experience over a secure
Virtual Private Network connectivity. Reliance Netconnect
Broadband+ is well-equipped to handle the taxing demands of
video conferencing. The launch of the world's first
high-resolution wireless video conferencing service further
reinforces Reliance’s capability of delivering innovative
solutions. The corporate sector, especially the growing Services
and SME sectors, will benefit greatly from this offering.”
The out-of-the-box solution will be offered at a price point
below Rs 2 lacs and will be powered by Reliance's Video
Conferencing service including the countrywide network of video
conferencing suites at Reliance World. A connectivity plan of
about Rs 1500 per month has been specially designed for this
service. This plan covers 10 GB of usage in a month. Additional
usage will be billed at the rate of 50 paise per MB. Reliance
will also offer this service on an affordable pay-per-use basis.
Reliance Webstore Limited believes that the wireless video
conferencing service has the potential to double the market size
in India and projects a revenue upside of over Rs 400 crore over
the next five years from the new service. The company sees major
off-take of the service in mini-metros & smaller cities,
especially in the SME business clusters, and expects nearly 60%
of the sales to come from these geographies.
About Reliance
Communications
Reliance
Communications Limited founded by the late Shri Dhirubhai H
Ambani (1932-2002) is the flagship company of the Reliance
Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai
Ambani Group currently has a net worth in excess of Rs.
64,000 crore (US$ 13.6 billion), cash flows of Rs. 13,000
crore (US$ 2.8 billion), net profit of Rs. 8,400 crore (US$
1.8 billion).
Reliance Communications is India's foremost and truly
integrated telecommunications service provider. The Company,
with a customer base of 105 million including over 2.5
million individual overseas retail customers and nearly 3
million DTH customers, ranks among the Top 5 Telecom
companies in the world by number of customers in a single
country. Reliance Communications corporate clientele
includes 2,100 Indian and multinational corporations, and
over 800 global, regional and domestic carriers.
Reliance Communications has established a pan-India, next
generation, integrated (wireless and wireline), convergent
(voice, data and video) digital network that is capable of
supporting best-of-class services spanning the entire
communications value chain, covering over 24,000 towns and
600,000 villages. Reliance Communications owns and operates
the world's largest next generation IP enabled connectivity
infrastructure, comprising over 190,000 route kilometers of
fibre optic cable systems in India, USA, Europe, Middle East
and the Asia Pacific region.
About Reliance Webstore Limited
Reliance Webstore
Limited—a Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group
company—manages the nationwide chain of Reliance World
stores. The stores are designed to give the customer a
delightful experience of the digital world of information,
communication, entertainment and utility services. Besides
offering the products and services of Reliance
Communications, Reliance World showcases all retail
offerings of the Group’s brands, including Reliance Big TV
DTH and Big Flix Video Rentals. The stores also offer a wide
range of interesting and innovative products & services,
beyond the Group’s brands. All Reliance World stores are
connected to Reliance’s countrywide optic fibre network. The
Broadband Centre at Reliance World leverages this broadband
network to offer High-Speed Internet Surfing, Online Gaming,
Video Conferencing, Digital Electronic News Gathering,
Digital Services, eLearning, Ready-to-use Offices and many
more services.
Reliance World operates the world's largest Video
Conferencing network with over 200 Video Conference Suites
across the country. Reliance World's Video Conferencing
service has won the prestigious Frost & Sullivan Market
Leadership Award thrice and several other international
awards. Reliance World also holds the record for hosting the
world's largest Video Conference. Currently, there are 234
Reliance World stores across 104 cities in India and the
network continues to expand to more locations & cities. For
more information on Reliance World, visit
www.relianceworld.in
About Polycom Inc
Polycom, Inc. (Nasdaq:
PLCM) is the global leader in telepresence, video, and
voice solutions and a visionary in communications that
empower people to connect and collaborate everywhere.
Visit
www.polycom.co.in
for more information and follow us on Twitter
@PolycomAlert.