Reliance Jio launch by December, devices from Rs.4,000

Reliance Industries will launch its broadband services by December this year, by which time 4G devices under its own brand name “Jio” will be available for as little as Rs.4,000 at the entry level, the company announced on Friday.

“We are currently in the pre-launch testing and stabilization phase of this large and complex network. Over the next few months, we will initiate an extensive beta launch involving millions of friendly customers across all our markets,” Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani told shareholders here.

“This beta programme will be upgraded into commercial operations around December of this year,” he said, adding that the company now has end-to-end initial capacity to serve over 100 million broadband and 20 million fibre-to-home customers for the Jio platform.

On devices, the chairman told the company’s 41st annual general meeting that the focus has been on affordable, yet innovative smartphones, on which is dependent the penetration of this future technology.

“Jio and Reliance Digital teams have worked with all leading device manufacturers of the world to ensure availability of VoLTE (Voice-over-long-term) 4G smartphones across all price points — from ultra-premium models on one hand, to entry level models on the other,” Ambani said.

“The combination of Jio’s strong initiatives and a supportive global environment, gives me the confidence that we will see VoLTE phones in India at prices below Rs. 4,000 by December of this year.”