Reliance Infocomm, the telecom subsidiary of the Reliance group, is set to expand its subscriber base in rural areas.

The company aims to have a subscriber base of over 20 million with presence in over 3,000 towns by the end of 2005 against 1,100 at present. Currently its subscriber base stands at 10 million.

It is also expected to come up with an initial public offering by the end of next financial year.

"Reliance Infocomm is expanding its network with presence in additional 3,000 towns. We have activated 150,000 phone connections in a single day, which could be unique in any part of the world," said Kaushik Roy, head, marketing, Reliance Infocomm.

According to analysts, about 180-200 million people can afford mobile services in India, but the infrastructure is still not in place to tap the demand.

It is estimated that the mobile phone market in India will grow to 140 million subscribers by fiscal 2008 and the company expects to retain the market leadership. Between 1999 and 2002 the company built a 60,000 km fibre optic network. It has established a pan-India, high-capacity, integrated (wireless and wireline) and convergent (voice, data and video) digital network, to offer services spanning the entire infocomm value chain.

As part of its long distance infrastructure project, it will have an over 96,000 km fibre optic cable network.

Besides, the project entails the setting up of 3,000 base terminal stations and 40 switching centres. Most of the work in this regard is set to be completed, according to company officials.

The second phase of the infocomm project will provide 100 mbps Ethernet links to corporate customers. This will help make transactions efficient, functions seamless and new economic opportunities abundant.

The enterprise broadband service is in the process of being rolled out in 30 towns and would then be extended to cover 200 towns in phases.

The services planned include POTS (plain old telephone lines), leased lines, international private leased circuits, virtual private network, video phone, audio and video conferencing among others.

The company will also provide high-speed Ethernet links to homes. This facility called Netway will provide homes with a range of television channels, high-speed telephony, audio conferencing, video conferencing, video on demand, juke box, time shifted TV, t-commerce, and surveillance services.

Reliance Infocomm has licences to offer services in 20 circles. In addition, it has received the letter of intent for the Jammu & Kashmir circle.

The company launched its services in May 2003. At the end of October 2004 the company has almost nine million subscribers.