Reliance Communications and chipmaker Intel announced a tie-up to increase Internet penetration in tier-two and tier-three cities in Karnataka and eventually across India. In this joint program, customers buying Intel-powered PCs from genuine Intel dealers in these cities will be offered Reliance wireless products for Internet connectivity. "They need not spend additionally on a separate dial-up connection and can access the Net at speeds that exceed that of dial-up," said Inder Bajaj, Head, Post-paid business, Reliance Communications.

The joint promotion will initially be rolled out across eleven cities in Karnataka and will be rolled out across India in a couple of months. Intel hopes to piggyback on Reliance's wide network that covers 4500 towns in India. With its CDMA 2000 1x network, Reliance's wireless phones and data cards offer high-speed Internet connectivity on PCs and laptops through its Reliance Netconnect service platform. The wireless products offer download speeds of up to 144 kbps.
Karnataka, which has a Reliance subscriber base of 1.2 million out of which 350,000 are data services users, proved an ideal test ground for the companies to launch their joint program. The state also has 7000 data card users and the wireless Net usage in among the highest in India.

John McClure, MD, sales and marketing, Intel (South Asia), said that Intel's joint relationship with Reliance was in tune with the company's World Ahead program that was unveiled by Intel CEO Paul Otellini during its recent Indian visit. "Intel hopes to provide affordability, connectivity and education through World Ahead. We hope to increase the Internet penetration in second and third tier cities, which are untouched by broadband penetration. Our collaboration with Reliance would enable this through our wide channel partner network."

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