MUMBAI,INDIA:Reliance Communications, India’s largest and only telecom operator offering nationwide CDMA and GSM mobile services, has forged a partnership with Polycom Inc., the global leader in tele-presence, video and voice solutions, to introduce world's first wireless, high-resolution video conferencing service. The service will be marketed through Reliance ADA Group's retail arm, Reliance Webstore Limited.

Bundling the easy-to-use Polycom QDX 6000? video conferencing system with dedicated VPN connectivity through the Reliance Netconnect Broadband+ wireless broadband data card, the service significantly lowers the price barrier to adopting video conferencing and is expected to be a mass enabler of video conferencing usage across multiple industry verticals in India.

The release adds that the jointly developed offering will extend affordable, plug-and-play video conferencing to organizations of all sizes, enabling them to realize immediate productivity and efficiency benefits from real-time, face-to-face visual communication. Besides small and medium enterprises (SMEs), education, event management, media & entertainment, and hospitality are among the sectors likely to take advantage of the flexible and affordable video conferencing service developed by Reliance and Polycom.

Reliance Webstore Limited already offers wired video conferencing services to over 1500 corporate clients through its network of over 200 video conference suites at Reliance World stores across the country.

Sarup Chowdhary, Director and CEO, Reliance Webstore Limited said, “Reliance World operates the world's largest network of video conferencing suites. Through our alliance with Polycom, we are making video conferencing a simple plug-and-play operation that can be deployed and used virtually anytime, anywhere.”

The Polycom QDX 6000 video conferencing system delivers high-resolution video and CD-quality audio, along with simple-to-use content sharing capabilities – even at a bandwidth of 256 kbps. Customers of the wireless video conferencing service will be able to connect to any industry standards-based video conferencing system, anywhere in the world. The wireless nature of the service also makes it suitable for out-of-office events. Using this service, even family events like weddings, parties and ceremonies can be webcast live by event managers on a pay-per-use basis.

Hansjoerg Wagner, vice president and managing director, Polycom Asia Pacific, said, “The wireless video conferencing solution jointly developed by Polycom and Reliance is truly a unique innovation on a global scale. Although mobile broadband exists in many markets, India is the first country in the world to deliver a wireless video conferencing service. Through our partnership with Reliance Communications, and our relationships with other leading vendors in the Unified Communications ecosystem, Polycom sees that visual communications will be ubiquitous within two to three years.”

Leveraging Reliance Webstore's extensive retail reach, the service is being commercially rolled out in over 40 Indian cities. The service will be expanded to more cities in a phased manner. The Wireless Video Conferencing service will ride on Reliance Communications’ telecom infrastructure backbone. Reliance Communications’ extensive pan-India, next generation, integrated, convergent digital network spans over 190,000 route kilometers of fibre optic cable systems. This network is capable of supporting best-of-class services spanning the entire communications value chain. 

Vrajesh Shelat, Head – Wireless Data Business, Reliance Communications Ltd. said “Our robust pan-India network is equipped to deliver a lifelike video experience over a secure Virtual Private Network connectivity. Reliance Netconnect Broadband+ is well-equipped to handle the taxing demands of video conferencing. The launch of the world's first high-resolution wireless video conferencing service further reinforces Reliance’s capability of delivering innovative solutions. The corporate sector, especially the growing Services and SME sectors, will benefit greatly from this offering.”

The out-of-the-box solution will be offered at a price point below Rs 2 lacs and will be powered by Reliance's Video Conferencing service including the countrywide network of video conferencing suites at Reliance World. A connectivity plan of about Rs 1500 per month has been specially designed for this service. This plan covers 10 GB of usage in a month. Additional usage will be billed at the rate of 50 paise per MB. Reliance will also offer this service on an affordable pay-per-use basis