Reliance Jio cleared for 4G voice calling services

MUMBAI, INDIA: Reliance JioInfocomm (RJIL) has received a letter of intent from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as an approval of unified license, which will allow the operator to offer voice services to its customers.

This news comes as a huge boost to the Mukesh Ambani owned telecom operator as it looks to flex its muscles, both in India and in the South-Asian mobile communications market.

As part of the deal, RJIL has to pay one-time entry fee of Rs. 1,673 crore along with performance bank guarantee of Rs. 220 crore and a financial bank guarantee of Rs. 44 crore. RJIL had been testing voice and messaging services to be rolled out on the 2-MHz 2.3 GHz spectrum band for some time now.

RJIL had been recently awarded with a Facility Based Operator (FBO) Licence in Singapore to facilitate internet and voice roaming services. The licence allows Reliance JioInfocomm to buy, operate and sell undersea and/or terrestrial fibre connectivity, set up its internet point of presence, offer Internet transit and peering services as well as data and voice roaming services in Singapore.

The Reliance Jio Brand as a whole is a part of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL). The four brands in which Mukesh Ambani owned RIL has a 50 percent stake are Reliance Jio Pvt Ltd, Reliance JioCloudworks Pvt Ltd, Reliance Jio Electronics Pvt Ltd and Reliance Jio Media Pvt Ltd.

RJIL is eyeing Odisha in east India for tapping the data market and started discussions with the government there regarding the same. The State Housing and Urban Development department has asked RIL to submit a concrete proposal on development of infrastructure for the purpose.The recent cycle however has led to a delay in the implementation of this.

RJIL is working with a host of other companies regarding the rollout of 4G services. RJIL is working with Micromax, Karbonn Mobile and Huawei among others on their 4G devices. Vikas Jain, co-founder and Business director of Micromax said, "We are on the test beds with Reliance JioInfocomm that has got BWA licenses and is waiting to launch its network. Our devices are being tested with the telcos, since a lot of technology integration is required in 4G devices."

Analysys Mason said India will account for 5 percent of LTE 4G connections worldwide by 2018. They think the developing countries like India, Brazil, China and Russia will push 4G/LTE data market. Operators like Reliance Jio, BhartiAirtel and China Mobile will be key 4G operators in Asia.