Reliance Jio ropes in former Blackberry India MD

Reliance Jio Infocomm has appointed Sunil Dutt, the former managing director of BlackBerry in India, as head of its devices segment.

He will be reporting to Reliance group president Sandip Das and Reliance Jio managing director Sanjay Mashruwala.

Dutt, who left BlackBerry in March 2013 and was working as an independent consultant before joining the Reliance Jio, would be taking care of the company’s branded handsets for 4G rollout, though the devices are likely to be delivered from a third party.

Besides, he will be involved in developing a portfolio of Reliance branded devices.

He has also worked as the president (personal systems group) of Hewlett-Packard India, country head for Samsung's mobile business and Nokia as sales head.

Reliance Jio is expediting its hiring process as it plans to launch 4G services in the country by October that would provide high speed internet, rich communication services and various digital services.

It is also in talks with Samsung and TCL for launching affordable 4G devices.

Jio holds spectrum in the 2300 MHz band in all 22 circles and as per the licensing rules, it should roll out 4G services before May 2015.