Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- India's telecommunications ministry allotted additional airwaves to Reliance Communications Ltd., the nation's second-largest wireless carrier, to expand a network based on global system for mobile communications, or GSM, technology, the company said.

Mumbai-based Reliance currently runs a nationwide wireless network based on the code division multiple access, or CDMA, technology.

``Reliance Communications will, in due course, offer nationwide GSM services in addition to its existing CDMA services,'' the company said in a statement to the National Stock Exchange today.

Reliance has paid as much as 16.5 billion rupees ($420 million) for a license to offer services based on the most widely used GSM technology in all 22 of India's designated telecommunications zones, from the current eight.

To contact the reporter on this story: Anil Varma in Mumbai at avarma3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: January 12, 2008 03:17 EST