The National Stock Exchange today launched a new facility to provide stock updates on mobile phones, which the country's leading bourse hopes will help it reach out to more customers.

"For the first time in India, getting market data on a mobile will no longer be the preserve of a privileged few.

From September 14, the NSE will start providing market data to anyone who registers their mobile number on the NSE website," the exchange said in statement today.

Through this new facility, NSE data can be received by anyone with a mobile phone in the country, which has a subscriber base of nearly 600 million users, compared to just 9 million Internet connections.

The NSE plans to offer trading through mobiles in early October.

Market data can be accessed for all asset classes, including equities, derivatives, currency or exchange traded funds, and data will be streamed to mobile phones in real- time, the exchange said.

This facility can be accessed by anyone who has a mobile with a GPRS connection, which effectively covers nearly 99 per cent of mobile users, including those who do not have high-end mobiles.

This also means that an individual in a rural or semi- urban area, or a tier 2 or 3 city, can also look at market data and take a decision on whether it is wise to start trading or not.