Reliance Communication launches "Netconnect Broadband Plus" - India's fastest wireless Internet service

• To drive broadband penetration in India
• Largest roll-out of a broadband internet service with seamless high-speed coverage across 20,000 towns and 4.5 lakh villages

Mumbai, March 12, 2009: Reliance Communications Limited (BSE: RCOM) today announced the roll-out of its CDMA wireless broadband service, Reliance Netconnect Broadband Plus. India's fastest Internet service, Netconnect Broadband Plus has a downlink speed of upto 3.1 Mbps and a separate uplink speed of upto 1.8 Mbps, offering 30% higher downlink rate in comparison to any other wireless broadband offering. This makes Netconnect Broadband Plus best suited for video streaming, video surveillance, rich media content &superior Internet browsing.

As part of this launch, Reliance is embarking on the largest and most aggressive roll-out of a broadband internet service in India. Netconnect Broadband Plus service will be available in 35 cities with seamless handover to high speed 1x service covering 20,000 towns and 4.5 lakh villages as well as all major road and rail routes across the country covering 99% of India's Internet population. The company will retail Netconnect Broadband Plus in 12,000 IT retail outlets across India as well as 2,300 exclusive Reliance Communication retail stores and nearly 240 Reliance World outlets.

Announcing the launch in Mumbai, Mr Mahesh Prasad, President, Reliance Communications said, "The launch of Netconnect Broadband Plus is an important milestone for Reliance and will act as a catalyst in the government's effort to drive broadband penetration in India. Reliance Netconnect Broadband Plus will be the inflection point for the Indian Internet industry and would enable broadband access to millions of online Indians."

India is amongst the lowest broadband penetrated countries in the world (0.5% in India versus 21.9% in US, 27.4% in Korea and 3.7% in China). India's poor broadband penetration can be attributed to the limitations of wireline Internet like last mile connectivity, right of way issues, poor quality of copper, time taken to deploy the network and reach customer premises. Reliance Netconnect Broadband Plus will significantly enhance the broadband coverage in India and make broadband Internet available to customers in many areas and localities who have been waiting for years to be broadband enabled. Easy availability and instant activation of Netconnect Broadband Plus would be a welcome change for the netizens who wait for weeks or months before they get connected to broadband.

Reliance Netconnect Broadband Plus will be available in the retail outlets from March 17, 2009 onwards. The product is launched in two Plug and Play USB device variants. Netconnect Broadband Plus is targeting two major segments:
a) About 6 million Road Warriors who need Internet access on the move through their laptop
b) About 8 million Home PC users who access entertainment and educational content.

The wireless broadband service will ride on Reliance Communication's extensive pan-India, next generation, integrated, convergent digital network spanning over 175,000 kilometers of fibre optic cable systems. This network is capable of supporting best-of-class services spanning the entire communications value chain.

It is estimated that out of the total 13 million Internet subscribers in the country, the current broadband penetration in India stands merely at 6.5 million. Reliance's wireless broadband service is expected to accelerate the broadband penetration in India. Reliance is adopting an aggressive pricing strategy to enhance the market penetration of its wireless broadband service. The company is launching the product starting at a monthly subscription charge of Rs 299 offering complete freedom to pay on use basis. The company will also offer an Unlimited Night plan at Rs 499 per month. Reliance Communications is targeting a potential 15 million users (includes 6 million laptop users, 1 million 1X CDMA Datacard users and 8 million home PC users) across India for its wireless broadband service.

About Reliance Communications

Reliance Communications Limited founded by the late Shri Dhirubhai H Ambani (1932-2002) is the flagship company of the Reliance Group. The Reliance Group currently has a net worth in excess of Rs. 63,000 crore (US$ 14 billion), cash flows of Rs. 12,000 crore (US$ 3 billion), net profit of Rs. 8,000 crore (US$ 2 billion) and zero net debt.

Reliance Communications is India's foremost and truly integrated telecommunications service provider. The Company, with a customer base of over 65 million including over 2 million individual overseas retail customers, ranks among the Top 10 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 20,000 towns and 450,000 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.

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