FULL TEXT: Mukesh Ambani announces launch of Reliance Jio GigaFiber in 1,100 cities

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani today announced that Jio will start giving out connections of its much-awaited broadband service, Jio GigaFiber, starting on August 15. Surprisingly, Ambani said the service will be available in 1,100 cities of India from Day 1, and not 100 cities as was announced two years ago. This means that Jio […]

Reliance Jio to buy $1 bln worth of goods from Samsung, Ace Tech

Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom subsidiary of Reliance Industries, said it will take a loan of $1 bln from Korea Trade Insurance Corporation to purchase goods from Korean companies Samsung and Ace Technologies. “The Facility is K-SURE’s largest deal in India as well as the largest deal supported by K-SURE in the telecom sector globally,” […]

Kerala tops smartphone penetration in India; Gujarat, Punjab close behind

Kerala has emerged as the state with the highest smartphone penetration in the country, according to data released by CyberMedia Research, a market intelligence firm tracking the technology sector. CMR’s data also reveales that on a pan-India level, about 47% of the mobile phone users in India are on smartphones, with the remaining 53% still […]

BSNL could launch 5G within one year

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd could end up launching 5G services as early as the first half of 2019, going by comments made by a senior official at an industry forum today. Speaking at the Mobile Device Summit 2018 organized by ‘The Mobile Association’, Anil Jain, the company’s Chief General Manager in charge of New Generation Networks promised […]

Bharti Airtel’s 4G capacity to see massive increase this year in Mumbai

Bharti Airtel has announced a massive expansion program for its Mumbai 4G network that could increase the data carrying capacity by several times in one year. The expansion comprises four areas — increasing the number of cell sites by about 30%, increasing the 4G spectrum by about 25%, expanding fiber capacity by about 18% and […]

Ahead of Reliance Jio Fiber launch, Spectra offers unlimited 1 Gbps at Rs 1,249

Spectra, formerly known as Spectranet, said it is now offering what is arguably India’s cheapest high-speed broadband service, even as rumors of an impending launch of Reliance Jio’s JioFiber start gaining momentum. Under the plan, Spectra said customers will get a download and upload speed of 1 Gbps (1,000 Mbps) with unlimited data usage for […]

Reliance Jio offers ‘play along’ features for TV broadcasters in India

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd said it has tied up with Israel-based Screenz to offer interactivity and ‘play along’ features for television programs in India. With the help of the offering, television channels can keep their viewers engaged on a realtime basis using smartphone apps. Jio has already deployed the concept for the quiz show Kaun […]

Soaring Jiophone sales could start hurting incumbents – Credit Suisse

Jiophone sales are rising fast and could start affecting the growth rates of rival telecom companies once the churn effect of fleeing Aircel subscribers gets over, analysts from financial services firm Credit Suisse said. Analysts Sunil Tirumala and Viral Shah said trends indicated that the Jiophone is contributing about 7 mln out of the 8-9 […]

Bharti Airtel launches Fiber-to-the-Home services at Rs 2,199 per month

With the launch of Reliance Jio’s home broadband services drawing nearer, competitor Bharti Airtel has introduced new fiber-based broadband plans with speeds of up to 300 Mbps. The FTIH (Fiber-To-the-Home) based plan comes at a monthly rental of Rs. 2199 and offers 1200GB of ultra-high speed data along with unlimited STD and local calling benefits. […]

Supreme Court lifts HC stay on RCom asset sale to Jio, no relief in NCLT case

Anil Ambani Group’s Reliance Communications cleared a major hurdle for the sale of its assets to Reliance Jio with the Supreme Court lifting the stay imposed by the Bombay High Court on the transaction. However, there was no immediate relief for the company on the the NCLT stay. The stay by the High Court was […]

Jio users need to click on app to extend Prime membership

Contrary to rumors, Reliance Jio is not giving an automatic extension in Jio prime membership to all its users, but existing members have to ‘express their interest’ through the company’s selfcare application. “Express your interest to get complimentary membership for the next 12 months,” the company said in a ‘how to’ statement for its existing […]

Reliance Jio’s 49 plan revives interest in Jiophone – Credit Suisse

Financial services firm Credit Suisse said sales of Jiophone, which had begun to lose steam after an initial surge, are now back on track due to the affordable Rs 49 plan launched by Reliance Jio. Jiophone, priced at Rs 1,500, is estimated to be selling at the rate of about 6 mln pieces per month, […]

Reliance Jio overtakes Bharti Airtel as India’s largest telecom network

Newly launched telecom operator Reliance Jio has overtaken market leader Bharti Airtel as the company with the largest telecom network in India. As of March 1, Reliance Jio had 4.48 lakh telecom base stations (towers) in India, compared to 4.31 lakh base stations for Bharti Airtel. At the same time, Idea Cellular had 2.79 lakh […]

RCom says confident of completing asset sale to Reliance Jio on time

Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications said it is confident of completing the sale of the assets related to its mobile network to Reliance Jio on time. The company’s statement was in the context of the Supreme Court refusing to give any urgent relief on the stay imposed on the asset sale by the National Company Law […]

Airtel, Vodafone beat Reliance Jio in on-the-ground 4G speed tests

4G operator Bharti Airtel was clearly ahead of market leader Reliance Jio and challenger Idea Cellular in on-the-ground 4G speed tests conducted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in ten cities in India this year. According to the data from these tests, Bharti Airtel scored an average download speed of 9.46 Mbps, 44% faster […]

RCom says will overcome Ericsson, Infratel challenges to Jio asset sale

Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications said it was confident of overcoming the twin legal challenges posed by shareholders in its tower subsidiary and one of the company’s unsecured creditors, Ericsson. The company is selling much of its spectrum, fiber, towers and other network assets to Reliance Jio Infocomm, led by Anil Ambani’s brother Mukesh, for an […]

JioTV adds multi-camera, multi-mic feature; VR coming soon

Reliance Jio, the 4G operator, said users of its JioTV streaming app can now choose any of the five camera angles while watching the ongoing Nidahas trophy as part of a new ‘interactive TV’ feature. Similarly, they can also choose to listen to different mics, such as the one on the stump or the stadium […]

Jiophone decimates Samsung, itel; Powers LYF to No.1 in January

LYF, the mobile phone brand that was launched along with Reliance Jio, emerged as India’s No.1 mobile phone brand by shipments in January, market researcher CMR said. In January, LYF had a share of 27% in the overall mobile phone market in India, while Samsung was a distant second with just 12.1%. This was primarily […]