At the Reliance Annual General Meeting this morning, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance, officially announced the launch of Reliance Jio. It is meant to be a premium data service available to people at low costs. While all the flamboyant and customer-delighting offers are breaking the internet, let us take a look at the lesser known things about Reliance Jio:
They look to partner with digital entrepreneurs
Reliance Jio is going to clear the way for young companies and entrepreneurs to take advantage of the platform they are building. This will not only accelerate their growth, but will also give them opportunities to form strategic partnerships.
Reliance Jio was called IBSL
Soon after the broadband wireless auction (BWA), in June 2010, RIL bought a 96% stake in Infotel Broadband, which had won 22 circles in the BWA. Although they were unlisted, they were worth over Rs 4,800cr, and were the only company to gain broadband spectrum in all 22 zones of India. They started to work as a telecom subsidiary of Reliance, and later in January 2013, they were named Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited.
Jio was supposed to be launched in 2015
RIL initially planned on launching their Jio services towards the latter half of 2015, but could only reach a beta launch, which was kickstarted by Shah Rukh Khan on the December 27, 2015 in Navi Mumbai. The employees of Jio and their families were made to use the services for testing purposes, and it is now open to the masses after many reforms and changes.
For the young, by the young
With 60,000 employees onboard, Jio boasts of a population of young minds working towards building the best data service that there is going to be in the country. The average age of employees at Jio is 30.
LTE enabled smartphones are on their way
We all know that RIL is going to use (Long Term Evolution) LTE technology, but not all phones are going to be able to support it. RIL joined hands with Intex in June 2015 for the supply of 4G-enabled handsets with the Voice Over LTE (VoLTE) feature for better use of Jio services. January 2016 also witnessed the launch of RIL’s own line of smartphones under the brand name of LYF. So far, we have seen models like Water 1, Water 2, Earth 1 and Flame 1.
While we are eagerly waiting for Jio to disrupt the industry and solve all the data problems that there are prevalent in the country, we would like to know what your expectations are from this product. Let us know in the comments section below.