Reliance Infocomm's 'Monsoon Hungama' offer last month seems to have created excitement as far away as Seoul.

LG Electronics Inc, the sixth largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world, said on Wednesday that its July sales of handsets grew by a third over June because of high exports to markets like India and the US.

Sources in the Indian office of LG CDMA said that the highest numbers of the CDMA technology-based phones were sold in India. Nearly 0.5 million sets were shipped in as Reliance placed huge demands for its 'Hungama' offer.

The source said LG has sold as many as 1.5 million sets to CDMA service operators like Reliance Infocomm, Tata Teleservices, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd.

This is half of the total 3 million sets acquired by these service providers in the year to July 31.

"We estimate the CDMA handset sales this year in India to be 5 million, of which more than half have been delivered. We also expect huge demand as a result of any special scheme, which maybe announced by these companies in the ensuing festival season when the salaried class is armed with company bonuses, perks, etc," the source added.

Korea's LG and Samsung are the largest suppliers of CDMA handsets in the country, though some other players like Nokia, Motorola, etc, are gradually increasing their presence. These companies, on the other hand, are strong players in the GSM handsets business.

Samsung has already launched its range of GSM phones in the country successfully, while LG is preparing its thrust. The two Korean electronics giants are investing huge sums of money to develop new range of GSM phones in their bid to wrest more marketshare from the likes of Nokia, Motorola, Sony-Eriksson, etc.

Mobile phone companies the worldover have lost volumes in the past few months due to the heatwave in France and the SARS epidemic in most parts of China and east Asia.