Reliance - Now in DTH

Once it was Reliance that brought mobile phones in the hand of common man. And probably this time the history is going to repeat itself. This time Reliance is all set to jump into the market of Direct-to-Home (DTH) service. The services are expected to start by March '08.

Following the same old path it has always been following, Reliance is this time in a mood to have a contract with Toshiba to provide 15 million new TV sets which will be provided with the DTH connections. The package is expected to cost somewhere around Rs 10,000-12,000.

The entry of Reliance in the DTH market is expected to be interesting. As the last time when Reliance entered the cell phones' market, the condition was pretty much the same. Cell phones were there in the market but the costs were keeping them out of reach of the common man and suddenly there was Reliance that brought calls at 40 paise/min and then phones for as low as Rs 500, which made others slash their rates and the result we all know.

This time too, its a lot similar yet. Although big players like Dish TV and Tata Sky are there in the field, DTH is a technology limited to a limited number of people yet and people prefer to bear with their cable operators only. For the reason, companies like Reliance and Airtel, that are soon to enter the DTH market are lobbying to get the Condition Access System (CAS) made mandatory in the 55 cities government was planning to bring it.

This is also known that the Airtel DTH is all set to release but the company is waiting for a good time to enter the market. In this situation, what will be the future of Reliance Blue Magic and Indian DTH market, will be worth watching.