NEW DELHI, India—BPL Mobile, India’s leading GSM service provider, hopes to increase substantially its revenues from non-voice services with its recently launched General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) service in Mumbai.
Announcing financial results for the period April to December 2001, the company said revenues from non-voice services had become 11 percent of the total revenue. “A further growth in this segment is expected due to the launch of GPRS,” the company said in a statement. Currently, BPL’s non-voice revenue comes from services such as voice mail and short message service (SMS).
BPL’s GPRS service is the first by a service provider in India. It will allow Internet connections of up to 30 kilobits per second (kbps) from GSM handsets when connected to a PC, laptop or Pocket PC/personal digital assistant (PDA) without the need for a fixed-line phone connection or a modem.
“Leading corporates will soon rely on BPL Mobile not only for their mobile communications, but also for secure uninterrupted access to LAN networks on BPL GPRS backbone,” the company said.
BPL Mobile, a joint venture of the BPL Group with France T
