NEW DELHI, India-Korean giant LG Electronics launched its CDMA handsets in the Indian market on Wednesday, but said the handsets will be sold through basic service providers like Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices. Reliance is slated to roll out its national CDMA service by year-end.
LG had won an order from Reliance worth US$100 million in July this year for supply of handsets. It has also sold more than half a million CDMA handsets to other government and private basic service providers.
The company officials told the press here that it had budgeted US$5 million for handset promotion in the Indian market. It has launched three models on the 1x platform-DM 160, a basic tier model, and the R30 and RD7130 handsets targeted at the premium segment.
They said LG expects the addition of 5 million to 6 million new CDMA subscribers in 2003.
Meanwhile, cellular operators are planning to challenge Reliance’s rollout of CDMA services, saying no new CDMA service provider should be allowed until the telecom disputes panel settles the issue of “limited mobility” as directed by the Supreme Court earlier this week (see related “Asia-Pacific” news). They contend the court ruling had allowed only existing CDMA players to continue.
