Reliance Jio LYF SmartPhones Adds Life to 4G-LTE ecosystem

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Reliance Jio LYFReliance Jio has launched its LYF branded handsets through the Reliance Digital stores. We visited some of these stores to experience the phones and came back impressed. Key takeaways,

LYF handsets compare well with competition: and offer more quality features at lower prices. 4 models launched priced at ~Rs 6,500 (LYF Flame), ~Rs 15,000 (LYF Water 1/ Water 2) and ~Rs 24,000 (LYF Earth 1). We expect the models to be successful given high-end competitive features at lower price points. All four models offer : (1) seamless voice to video call switch facility, (2) multi-party video calling, (3) Wi-Fi calling support with uniform dialer.

Corning’s Gorilla glass provides good

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How OTT Videos NetFlix / YouTube Red Disrupting Pay TV Market ?

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OTT Videos Disrupting PayTVNetflix is one of the pioneers in stimulating on-line subscription video on demand (SVoD) consumption in the United States. The recent launch of Netflix services across 130 new countries (including Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) has generated interest amongst investors on the potential impact of Netflix on traditional video ecosystem.

Broadband infrastructure is critical for delivery of quality OTT services online. Netflix states that a minimum speed of 3 Mbps is needed to watch SD quality videos, 5 Mbps is needed for HD quality and 25 Mbps for ultra HD services. Overall broadband infrastructure

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What Features are Expected in iPhone 7 ?

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iphone 7 Features ExpectationsApple has set high expectations with its Prime Time Product iPhone. Features we expect in iPhone 7 which we expect will launch in September 2016.

iPhone 7 Processor – We expect a new A10 chip built to be likely built on sub 14 nm and enhanced 16nm node processes, offering continued improvement in performance, power and speeds. As reference, Galaxy S6 has the Samsung Exynos 7 Octa processor. Four cores run at 1.5GHz and four run at 2.1GHz. iPhone 6 has the 1.4 GHz dual-core A8 chip with 64-bit architecture and M8 motion coprocessor.

iPhone 7 Memory The iPhone 5/5S are available

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How Vodafone and Airtel are vulnerable to Jio’s Public launch ?

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Vodafone IndiaAkash Ambai led Reliance Jio Infocomm is all set for public launch within the next couple of months. Before we dive into the details on how and why Airtel / Vodafone are the most vulnerable operators let us quickly look into data with ears on the ground.

Jio will launch with about 75,000 Cell Tower Locations and about 20,000 Small Sites / WiFi Spots. Target Locations of Launch – Metro Cities, Urban Centers and Semi-Urban Towns. Rural is excluded in the initial public launch and there are no Jio 4G signals in rural areas.

With such a Network Arrangement, Jio’s addressable market is 400 Mn Wireless Consumers in the above said geographical areas. How are these consumers stacked up ?

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700Mhz Spectrum Auction Pricing Ir-Rational – Will Find No Takers

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700 MHZ Spectrum AuctionThe TRAI’s recommended price – 20% premium to an overpriced 900MHz band – has made it a hard band to sell. The 900MHz band spectrum pricing (based on 2015 auction, where operators were fighting for business continuity) was result of overbidding. The amount of spectrum in the band is also limited, which further pushed up prices. However, with the availability of seven blocks, the 700MHz band will find limited takers at the recommended price.

Industry leader Airtel has a pan‐India 3G spectrum (except Kerala) and 4G spectrum is 14 circles. It has multiple options to add capacity spectrum

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How Can Reliance Jio Hit 100 Mn Subscribers ?

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Jio 100Mn Subscribers TargetReliance Jio has set an ambitious target of 100 Mn Subscribers in 100 days. We are skeptical about the same and Jio may achieve this number in a Year. Such an aggressive campaign would mean the company would have to seed at least 120 mn TD-LTE/Vo-LTE smartphones in the market to gain 100 mn subs.

While we think that device subsidies, cheaper tariffs and aggressive marketing would help Jio gain subs, we remain unsure how many subs will continue to stay with Jio over the longer-term. In our view a consistent good quality network, continued value proposition and consumer trust will be necessary for consumers to stay with Jio’s network.

Unlike a voice offering that just needs inserting a SIM card, for data offering a consumer needs a lot of hand holding for

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Reliance Jio – Looking Beyond Network

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Jio-Lyf-MobilesOver the last 18 months Reliance Jio’s has been on infrastructure, technology, and rollout milestones, amongst others. With the soft launch for employees having started, we look beyond the basic infrastructure and into product strategies.

RJio’s 4G network ourselves, is on par with incumbents in the urban areas, but is lacking in rural areas (maybe have roaming arrangements). Importantly, VoLTE works seamlessly in interconnecting with regular mobile/fixedline networks. The speeds are quite impressive, but remember it is also an empty network! Reliance Infocomm was reaching to masses however this time the strategy is exactly the opposite – Reach High End Customers with Unmatched Mobile Broadband Offering.

The biggest difference in RJio’s business model

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How is Reliance Jio Powering Last Mile 4G LTE Broadband ?

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exclusive1Last mile connectivity is the biggest challenge for 4G since the tower density needs to be much better than 2G/3G due to signal strength concerns. This is complicated the number of agencies (municipalities, housing societies, offices, etc) Jio has to seek approval from for laying infrastructure with minimum disturbance to existing ecosystem and managing the rhetoric around radiations.

As we write this, large parts of Mumbai have seen the laying of optical fibre cables by Jio. Further, in congested areas where telecom towers are difficult to put up, Jio has put up mini-towers (see below). Since they can be put up on existing street-light poles, traffic junctions, footpaths, etc the entry-barriers are low, both in terms of

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How will the 4G LTE Handset ecosystem evolve in India?

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4G LTE handset Ecosystem IndiaIndian Telecom Operators are unlikely to give handset subsidies given the predominant pre-paid market and past bitter experience of CDMA players. Incumbents instead are likely to encourage faster 4G handset adoption through bundling (offer some discount on data tariffs at the time of handset purchase). For example, Airtel is currently offering customers who upgrade their handsets to 4G double data for some time plus some other offers.

Like any other new entrant, Reliance Jio – a Greenfield 4G player – will be more aggressive in building the handset ecosystem without which any meaningful increase in its network capacity utilization will not be possible. As part of this –

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Reliance Jio Mobile Handset / Wireless Distributor Business

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Reliance Jio HandsetsReliance Jio Infocomm has 1,071 centres across the country with 35 in Mumbai alone. They will sell handsets as well as wireless services. The distribution network for handset and services are separate. Wireless services are 4x of Reliance centres, i.e. ~4,000 distributors whereas handsets are 40% of Reliance centres with 400 distributors.

Jio management aims to Create a healthy handset ecosystem at an attractive price. Currently, RJIO has four series of handsets: Water, Earth, Lyf and Flame; each of them has four

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