Videocon plans pan-Indian presence by Feb, to look at 3G phone

Conglomerate Videocon, which has forayed into mobile handset space, has said that it plans to achieve a pan-Indian presence by end of February and roll out 15 more models of handsets in two months.

"We will be going beyond soft launches and will aim at having a pan-Indian presence. We will expand our footprint this month and fill in the balance by the end of next month and have pan-Indian presence by end of February," Videocon Mobile Phones COO Rahul Goel said.

"Videocon has 12 models currently; we are not in the black and white space. We understand there is a huge requirement for dual SIM phones and we are looking at developing more phones in that region," he said, adding, "we are looking at launching 15 more models in the next two months".

On whether 3G phone was on the company's roadmap, he said, "We are positioning Videocon in the high end space as well and will be coming up with high end QWERTY phones and phones with 3G capability".

On the time frame for coming out with the 3G model, he said, currently, it was not possible to ascribe any specific time frame but once the private sector gets access to the 3G spectrum, it would be a matter of a month before the product would be rolled out, he said.

On Videocon's entry into the mobile handset space, Rahul said, "there is a huge potential in the market and a large base of consumers are untouched throughout the country". "Other than urban, semi-urban, the rural market is expanding rapidly and I think it is the right time to enter the market and we are doing it after a lot of research."

"There are 10-12 million mobile phones being purchased every month. There is no proper brand in the market addressing the requirements of the segment. Entering the mobile space is a natural extension for us, since we are already in consumer durable space," Rahul said.

On the contribution of the mobile segment to the overall turnover of the company, he said, "We will have a significant double digit share by end of next fiscal". "Our benchmark is to be in line with consumer requirement and to be one of the top three players by 2011," he said.

"A leadership position in two years we think is doable," he said, adding that "we have a strong foundation and infrastructure, strong customer service, distribution product development. We have invested in the right pillars to enable us to be leaders in the space," he said.

The company would shortly be airing its television commercial. "We do not have a brand ambassador now, but we shall use a celebrity eventually," he said.