Company Press Release:
 
HTC and Reliance Communications forge Strategic Alliance
 
S.P. Shukla, President, Personal Business, Reliance Communications 
and Peter Chou, CEO & President, HTC unveiling the highend 
range of Reliance HTC handsets
  • Will jointly develop and promote Next Generation CDMA Devices for Indian consumers
  • Launch two Windows based smart devices: HTC P3000 and HTC S720 
New Delhi (INDIA), March 20th 2008: HTC Corporation (TAIEX: 2498; "HTC"), the world's leading provider of Microsoft® Windows Mobile®-based smart devices, and Reliance Communications, India’s largest integrated telecom service provider, today announced a strategic alliance to promote next generation CDMA devices in India. The announcement marks HTC’s foray into the fast growing CDMA market in India, and reiterates the strategic focus of Reliance Communications to offer a wider range of world-class PDA devices on the CDMA platform for its high-end data usage customers.

Taking the first step forward under the alliance, HTC and Reliance Communications announced the launch of two new smart devices - the HTC P3000 and HTC S720.
 
“A future-proof, top-of-the-line integrated telecom network enabling a diverse suite of feature rich Voice, Data and Video applications, for millions of Indian consumers, was the key idea behind inception of Reliance Communications”, said Mr. S.P.Shukla - President, Reliance Communications. “The alliance with HTC is in line with our strategic intent to provide high-end devices empowering Reliance customers to access email, internet and data applications on the move. HTC’s technological edge and Reliance’s in depth consumer insights would enable us to continuously offer top-of-the-line handsets catering to emerging market trends in the Indian telecom landscape”.

Under the alliance, HTC’s world-class CDMA handsets will be exclusively provided on Reliance Communications state-of-the-art wireless network spread across 15,000 towns and 4 lakh Indian villages. With over a decade of experience in designing and innovating smart phone solutions, the HTC CMDA product-line in India, starting with the HTC P3000 and HTC S720, will offer a robust line-up of services and applications for high-end mobile users.

"The partnership with Reliance Communications further strengthens HTC’s commitment to serve the growing demands of Indian consumers. With the introduction of the HTC P3000 and HTC S720, customers will soon have access to these innovative CMDA devices," said Mr. Peter Chou, CEO  & President, HTC. "Merging HTC's innovative devices with Reliance’s network will enable customers to experience cutting-edge mobile Internet connectivity on the go.”

Mr. Amajit Gupta Director Communication and Media segment, Microsoft® India commented, “HTC has the largest portfolio of Window’s Mobile enabled smartphones in India and we are excited about the two new additions to the family - the HTC P3000 and HTC S720. Already, smartphones are being viewed as both mobile consumer Internet devices as well as imperative business productivity tools.  We are confident that with the added line up of business applications, the inherent power delivered by Windows Mobile, and the value proposition of the Reliance CDMA network, the devices will bring further maturity into the rapidly growing Smartphone market in India.

The two internationally successful HTC handset models - the HTC P3000 and the HTC S720 will be available at all Reliance World & Reliance Communications outlets and leading HTC Authorised Resellers across the country from next week onwards. The handsets would be available at a market-operating price of Rs. 16,500 and Rs. 19,500 respectively.


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 net worth in excess of Rs. 40,000 crore, cash flows of Rs. 9,000 crore, net profit of Rs. 5,000 crore and zero net debt.

Rated among "Asia's Top 5 Most Valuable Telecom Companies", Reliance Communications is India's foremost and truly integrated telecommunications service provider. The company, with a customer base of around 48 million including over 1.4 million individual overseas retail customers, ranks among the Top 10 Asian Telecom companies by number of customers. Reliance Communications’ corporate clientele includes 1850 Indian and multinational corporations, and over 200 global 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 infocomm value chain, covering over 15,000 towns and 400,000 villages. Reliance Communications owns and operates the world's largest next generation IP enabled connectivity infrastructure, comprising over 175,000 kilometers of fibre optic cable systems in India, USA, Europe, Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.

About HTC:
Founded in 1997, HTC designs, manufactures and markets innovative, feature rich smartphone and PDA Phone devices.

Since its establishment, HTC has developed strong R&D capabilities, pioneered many new designs and product innovations and launched state-of-the-art PDA Phones and smartphones for mobile operators and distributors in Europe, the US, and Asia. These machines are available as HTC devices and as products individually customized for operator and device partners.

HTC is one of the fastest growing companies in the mobile device market. The company is listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange under ticker 2498.