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RJIo to launch 4G services in December; under Rs 4k 4G devices in the offing

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VoicenData Bureau
New Update
Drama Mukesh Ambani

NEW DELHI: The much-awaited launch of 4G services by Reliance Jio (RJio) would take place in December this year, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries said during the AGM (annual general meeting) today.

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He said: "The financial year 2016-17 will be the first full year of commercial operations for Jio. Over the next few months, we will initiate an extensive beta launch involving millions of friendly customers across all

the markets.This beta program will be upgraded into commercial operations around December of this year."

He also said that RJio, the telecom arm of Reliance group, will play a key role in government's 'Digital India' program and help in lifting India from its current 142nd rank on internet penetration to amongst the top 10 nations in the world.

Talking about 4G devices, he mentioned that Jio and Reliance Digital teams have worked with all the leading device manufacturers of the world to ensure availability of 4G LTE smartphones across all price points – from ultra-premium models on one hand, to entry level models.

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"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.

It is interesting to note that in China 4G LTE devices as a percentage of overall device shipment has increased from 10% to over 84% in just the past year.

Jio is now present in all of the 29 states of India, with a direct physical presence in nearly 18,000 cities and towns. The wireless footprint covers over one lakh villages and it is expanding this footprint to cover nearly 80% of India's population by the end of this year.

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Its roadmap is to have 100% national coverage within the next three years. RJio is the first 4G broadband wireless operator to achieve wireless coverage far in excess of the rollout obligation as per its license conditions.

The company has deployed a network of nearly 250,000 route kilometres of fibre optics and over the next three years, it plans to more than double this fibre footprint by deploying fibre optics in the last mile.

“By April of next year, we would have connected over 1 million homes via fibre with a capability of rapidly scaling up in the top 50 cities of India, Ambani added.

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RJio is the only operator in the world providing next generation digital services over an end-to-end all-IP network.

In addition to this domestic fibre optic capacity, it has created a multi-Terabit capacity international network.

Besides, the company has operationalized nearly half a million square feet of its own next-generation cloud data centres and is working to double this capacity over the next year.

The company today employs over 17,500 full-time employees. It has invested over Rs 10,000 crore during this year's auction to acquire 800MHz spectrum in 10 circles and 1800 MHz spectrum in six circles, which brings its cumulative investment in spectrum assets to nearly Rs 34,000 crores.

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