Jio

History

In June 2010, Reliance Industries (RIL) bought a 96% stake in Infotel Broadband Services Limited (IBSL) for ₹4,800cr. Although unlisted, IBSL was the only firm to win broadband spectrum in all 22 zones in India in the 4G auction that took place earlier that year. Later continuing as RIL's telecom subsidiary, Infotel Broadband Services Limited was renamed as Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) in January 2013.

In June 2015, Jio announced that it will start its operations all over the country by the end of 2015. However, four months later in October 2015, the company's spokesmen sent out a press release stating that the launch was postponed to the first quarter of the financial year 2016-2017.

Later in July, a PIL filed in the Supreme Court by an NGO called the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, through Prashant Bhushan, challenged the grant of pan-India licence to Jio by the Government of India. The PIL also alleged that Jio was allowed to provide voice telephony along with its 4G data service, by paying an additional fees of just ₹165.8 crore (US$25 million) which was arbitrary and unreasonable, and contributed to a loss of ₹2,284.2 crore (US$340 million) to the exchequer.

The Indian Department of Telecom (DoT), however, refuted all of CAG's claims. In its statement, DoT explained that the rules for 3G and BWA spectrum didn't restrict BWA winners from providing voice telephony. As a result, the PIL was revoked, and the accusations were dismissed.

Beta launch

The 4G services were launched internally to Jio's partners, its staff and their families on 27 December 2015. Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, who is also the brand ambassador of Jio, kickstarted the launch event which took place in Reliance Corporate Park in Navi Mumbai, along with celebrities like musician A R Rahman, actors Ranbir Kapoor and Javed Jaffrey, and filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani. The closed event was witnessed by more than 35000 RIL employees some of whom were virtually connected from around 1000 locations including Dallas in the US.

Commercial launch

The company commercially launched its services on 5 September 2016. Within the first month of commercial operations, Jio announced that it had acquired 16 million subscribers. This is the fastest ramp-up by any mobile network operator anywhere in the world. Jio crossed 50 million subscriber mark in 83 days since its launch. Jio crossed 100 million subscribers on 22 February 2017.

Radio frequency summary

Jio owns spectrum in 800 MHz and 1,800 MHz bands in 10 and 6 circles, respectively, of the total 22 circles in the country, and also owns pan-India licensed 2,300 MHz spectrum. The spectrum is valid till 2035.

Partnerships

Ahead of its digital services launch, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio entered into a spectrum sharing deal with younger brother Anil Ambani-backed Reliance Communications. The sharing deal is for 800 MHz band across seven circles other than the 10 circles for which Jio already owns.

In September 2016, Jio signed a pact with BSNL for intra-circle roaming which would enable users of the operators to use each other's 4G and 2G spectrum in national roaming mode.

4G Broadband

The company launched its 4G broadband services throughout India on September 2016. It was slated to release in December 2015 after some reports said that the company was waiting to receive final permits from the government. Mukesh Ambani, owner of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) whose Reliance Jio is the telecom subsidiary, had unveiled details of Jio's fourth-generation (4G) services on 12 June 2015 at RIL's 41st annual general meeting. It offers data and voice services with peripheral services like instant messaging, live TV, movies on demand, news, streaming music, and a digital payments platform.

The company has a network of more than 250,000 km of fiber optic cables in the country, over which it will be partnering with local cable operators to get broader connectivity for its broadband services. With its multi-service operator (MSO) licence, Jio will also serve as a TV channel distributor and will offer television-on-demand on its network.

LYF Smartphones

In June 2015, Jio tied up with domestic handset maker Intex to supply 4G handsets enabled with voice over LTE (VoLTE) feature. Through this, it plans to offer 4G voice calling besides rolling out high-speed Internet services using a fiber network, in addition to the 4G wireless network. However, in October 2015, Jio announced that it would be launching its own mobile handset brand named LYF.

On 25 January 2016, the company launched its LYF smartphone series starting with Water 1, through its chain of electronic retail outlets, Reliance Retail. Three more handset models have been released so far, namely Water 2, Earth 1, and Flame 1.

Jionet WiFi

Prior to its pan-India launch of 4G data and telephony services, Jio has started providing free Wi-Fi hotspot services in cities throughout India including Surat, Ahmedabad in Gujarat, and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Indore, Jabalpur, Dewas and Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh, select locations of Mumbai in Maharashtra, Kolkata in West Bengal, Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, Bhubaneswar in Odisha, Mussoorie in Uttarakhand, Collectorate's Office in Meerut, and at MG Road in Vijayawada among others.

In March 2016, Jio started providing free Wi-Fi internet to spectators at six cricket stadiums hosting the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 matches. Jionet was made available in Wankhede Stadium (Mumbai), Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium (Mohali), Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium (Dharamshala), Chinnaswamy Stadium (Bengaluru), Feroz Shah Kotla (Delhi), and Eden Gardens (Kolkata) in India.

Jio apps

In May 2016, Jio launched a bundle of multimedia apps on Google Play as part of its upcoming 4G services. While the apps are available to download for everyone, a user will require a Jio SIM card to use them. Additionally, most of the apps are in beta phase. Following is a list of the apps:

Branding and marketing

On December 24, 2015, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan was appointed as Jio's brand ambassador.

Issue with incumbents

In September 2016, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) summoned Jio and the country's existing telecom operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular to meet and discuss an issue regarding interconnection between the operators. This was a result after Jio complained to TRAI and Department of Telecom (DoT) about other operators not honoring their commercial agreements to let Jio use their network resources. The company further added that the operators are trying to sabotage its entry into the telecom scene. However, DoT dismissed the request and directed TRAI to help settle the dispute amicably. Moreover, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) requested TRAI to include all the operators in the discussion instead of the three.

The incumbent operators had previously approached the country's PMO to reiterate their stance they "are in no way obliged or in any position to entertain Jio's requests for interconnection points as they do not have either the network or the financial resources to terminate the latter's humongous volumes of potentially asymmetric voice traffic." Responding to this, Mukesh Ambani, owner of Jio, said, "All operators have publicly said last week that they will provide this (interconnect and MNP). So, we are waiting. These are all great companies. They have their own reputations to protect. I am confident they won't violate the law." Commenting about number portability, he added, "The number belongs to the consumer. No operator can cause trouble if they want to change operators." However, on 12 September 2016, Idea Cellular agreed to allow Jio to use 196 of its interconnection access points. However, Jio made High speed internet popular among smart phone users in India.