Reliance Jio to launch 4G services by December

Mumbai: Billionaire Mukesh Ambani will re-enter the telecom business with a Rs 4,000 4G smartphone by December, offering voice and data services for as low as Rs 300-Rs 500 per month.

Reliance Jio Infocomm, which will commercially launch 4G services by December, has the largest footprint of liberalised spectrum in the country, acquired at a cost of Rs 34,000 crore.

Speaking at annual shareholders meeting of Reliance Industries (RIL), Ambani said ensuring availability of affordable 4G smartphones has been one of the topmost priorities for Jio.

"The combination of Jio's strong initiatives and a supportive global environment, gives me the confidence that we will see 4G LTE smartphones in India at prices below Rs 4,000 by December of this year," Ambani said.

Jio plans to offer telecom, high speed data, digital commerce, media and payment services for about Rs 300 to Rs 500 per month.

"In our digital business, our plan is to provide the same power of computing, communication and information to every individual, whether in towns or rural areas, that the US President had ten to fifteen years ago. All this at about Rs 300 to Rs 500 per month," the Chairman of RIL said.

He said Jio is now present in all of the 29 states with a direct physical presence in nearly 18,000 cities and towns whereas wireless footprint covers over one lakh villages.

"We are expanding this footprint to cover nearly 80 per cent of India's population by the end of this year. Our roadmap is to have 100 per cent national coverage within the next three years," he said.

Ambani said Jio is well-positioned to emerge as a global tier-1 telecom operator but it is much more than just telecom services.

"We followed an integrated business strategy from the very beginning, and today, Jio is capable of offering a unique combination of telecom, high speed data, digital commerce, media and payment services," he added.

The firm in April launched its first mobile application, 'Jio Chat' that integrates chat, voice, video calling, conferencing, file sharing, photo sharing among others.

"In just the first few weeks of operations, Jio Chat now has a million active users, without any paid promotions or over paid advertisements whatsoever," Ambani said.