Reliance Jio Infocomm thinks big like the Ambani DNA. As the Economic Progress in India came to an halt, affordability of 4G got pushed back by few more years. In this backdrop, 2G Voice continues to be the Cash Ringing Register for Telcos.
The State of Voice over LTE
With challenges in commercial VoLTE deployments, circuit switched fallback (CSFB) has been the more popular form of providing voice and data services globally. CSFB allows the subscriber to use data services over 4G networks but switches back to the traditional 2G/3G networks when using voice. Globally, only MetroPCS and Korean operators have launched VoLTE services and the technology is still at a very nascent stage. This implies that RIL will have to either set up infrastructure for voice services on the 2.3 GHz spectrum (which is highly inefficient) or tie up with an existing operator to provide CSFB. The latter could be a logical possibility.
Will Reliance Jio Acquire Wholesale Minutes or BUY Spectrum ?
To be a competitive force in voice services, RJIL could acquire additional spectrum at the upcoming auctions. Buying wholesale
minutes from RCOM, whilst the most suitable solution, may not be easy under the new unified license regime which dictates.
…However, any Roaming arrangement shall not entitle the Licensee to acquire customer in the spectrum band not held or technology not deployed or for services/facilities not offered by the Licensee in its network…
Even with the Government allowing VoIP Calls, their are problems during mobility and handover from tower to tower on Pure 4G LTE Data Network. Seamless Coverage like 2G for Voice using TD-LTE is an an affair which will cost 3x for Network CAPEX.
The other Choice will be to act as MVNO and Bundle Minutes with 4G Data. However, again the underlying carrier has to implement CSFB to make it a seamless service just like how Airtel has been doing in pockets where it has launched 4G data Services. In this case, if they forge a partnership with RCOM, they’ll have to shell lot of money to upgrade RCom’s network to CSFB.
Now RJIL has limited choices and it occurs to us that it may have to BUY more spectrum and expand the Backhaul Fiber Network being built by HFCL Connect and Videocm Datacom solutions to offer 4G Data and Mobile Voice Services.