December 31, 2008; BANGALORE:

A week or two into the new year, when Sehwag ki maa says 'hello' to her son from her Reliance mobile, she could well be speaking from a GSM handset. The company which once chose to go off the beaten track and enter the Indian telecom space with the CDMA standard of mobile communication. has announced today its awe-invoking plan of reaching out to 24,000 towns and 600,000 villages in a month's time, which, if achieved, will be a record breaking fete.

In an attempt to be state-of-the-art from Day 1, Reliance's GSM offering with be EDGE enabled with 'shutter-free video capabilities' inclucive of 16 television channels, maps, entertainment and various other mobile content bundled with a choice of 250 handset models.

Reliance claims that an investment of Rs. 10,000 crores has gone in to the GSM service offering and the project has been completed 6 months ahead of schedule.