Reliance Communications’ subsidiary, Reliance Webstore, commenced the market roll-out of China Wireless’ Coolpad branded CDMA phone, S100. The handset will be retailed across 100 top Indian cities.

According to Sami Al-Lawati, Managing Director, Coolpad Communications, “In the current scenario, we see CDMA subscribers as the key drivers of mobile data business in India. Feature-rich CDMA handsets will play a crucial role in addressing this segment. Currently, the operator pushed CDMA handsets are primarily in the sub-2000 price bracket. Telecom operators typically bundle talk-time with entry-level handsets as part of their subscriber acquisition strategy. However, amongst the 120 million CDMA subscriber base in India, almost 30% use CDMA smartphones. This captive customer base of CDMA smartphones, as well as the increasing base of CDMA-users who want more features in their phones, offers Coolpad an opportunity to address the CDMA segment with the right products, at very attractive price-points.”

The alliance says that it will follow a two-pronged strategy to drive its sales in the CDMA segment namely bundling the handsets with CDMA connections and also offering it in unbundled version mainly with a focus on smartphone sales.

The handset is priced sub-Rs.4500 price point which the alliance says is 30% cheaper than competing touch screen phones in the market.

Later on Coolpad plans to launch over 15 CDMA handset models in the current fiscal including dual-mode handsets. The company is targeting one million annual handset sales in India.