Videocon plans pan-India presence by Februay

"We will be going beyond soft launches and will aim at having a pan-India presence. We will expand our footprint this month and fill in the balance by end of next month and have pan-India presence by end of February", Rahul Goel, COO, Videocon Mobile Phones, told reporters in the wake of the launch of the company's mobile handsets in Karnataka.

"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 3-G 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 3-G capability".

On the time frame for coming out with the 3-G model, he said, currently, it was not possible to ascribe any specific time frame but once the private sector gets access to the 3-G 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", he said.

"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.

"New operators have launched their cell phones, and in terms of numbers, we already have more than 100 million subscribers and it is getting bigger and better day by day. Replacement and advancement of cell phone is also a huge pie of the total", said the COO.

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, "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.

"We want to be a one stop-shop for the customer whoever wants to by a cellphone of any range". 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.