Indian mobile operator Reliance Communications (RCom) claims to have attracted a record number of new customers in the first quarter of the year following the launch of its new GSM network, and is aiming to become one of the world’s five largest mobile operators by subscribers. In an interview with the Financial Times (FT) over the weekend, S.P. Shukla, chief executive of Reliance’s wireless division, said the operator was on track to hit 100 million customers by year-end. “That will take us into the top five in the world,” he said. According to the FT, RCom has added 11.3 million subscribers in the past three months, with nearly 9 million attributed to the new GSM network, a figure Mr Shukla described as a “record” for a single company. RCom’s GSM network, which was launched at the beginning of the year (and in addition to its existing CDMA network), covers 11,000 cities and 200,000 villages in India.

According to Wireless Intelligence data, RCom had an estimated 61.1 million subscribers on its CDMA network by the end of the first-quarter, making it the third-largest operator in India and the ninth-largest in the world by subscribers. However, the FT notes that, as India is currently adding more than 10 million subscribers a month, its operators are rapidly outgrowing other international operators. Market-leader Bharti is currently the world’s third-largest operator by subscribers, behind China Mobile and China Unicom. Meanwhile, rival CDMA operator, Tata Teleservices (TTSL), said last week it plans to invest some US$2 billion in building its own GSM network during its current fiscal year.