Mumbai, Feb. 9: Reliance Infocomm today announced its entry into the pre-paid mobile segment comprising 85 per cent of the new subscriptions in the industry.

Atul Jhamb, heading the Mumbai and Maharashtra circles, said, “We will rock the market with a range of handsets.” The pre-paid segment is currently monopolised by GSM players.

Reliance India Mobile (RIM) is offering a Motorola C131 handset for Rs 3,500 along with a free pre-paid connection and recharge vouchers worth Rs 3,240 valid for six months with an additional grace period of six months. Thus, a customer would effectively pay only Rs 260 for a handset worth Rs 3,500. Nokia, LG and Samsung handsets are also on offer at different rates.

Except for the invitational offer giving free talk-time with the handset, the tariff rates are similar to the rest in the industry, market analysts said.

“Our proposition is for the long term and is aimed at people young at heart,” said Kaushik Roy, marketing head of Reliance Infocomm.

The company is betting on the customer using up the talktime and buying more recharge cards in the first year. RIM has also entered into an agreement with Motorola for a substantial number of handsets in the first year, wresting an attractive price from the handset maker.

An additional six-month grace period means that a pre-paid customer can receive calls and SMS in that period without recharging. It will charge Rs 100 per coupon as administration cost.

Recharge coupons will be available in three denominations ranging between Rs 324 and Rs 1,000.

RIM is known for its innovative pricing strategies, which its rivals argue are not as cheap as is made out to be. Its post-paid services flagged off by the Dhirubhai Ambani Pioneer Offer and the Monsoon Hungama offer, which lowered the entry barrier for going mobile to Rs 501, have brought down the tariff rates in the industry.

The pre-paid scheme to be launched nationwide on February 11 will not be available to existing post-paid RIM customers for the time being.

“We will have to give them a special rate and in the first few months we would like to concentrate on netting new subscribers,” officials said.

RIM has coined a new slogan for the launch saying “mujhme hai woh baat”. Officials also said the prepaid services are essentially targeted at the youth, who form a significant chunk of the demographic profile.