Reliance Jio Targets Big Bang Nationwide Launch of Fiber Broadband, Wi-Fi & 4G LTE Services

Last month in a conference of Indian Telecommunications progress on 4G-LTE front, Reliance Jio’s B2B executive made a presentation and excerpts from the same are as under.

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio) has laid lot of stress on the fact that fibre connectivity is required [Even in 1999, Mukesh did the same which is now with RCom]. Reliance Jio plans to connect as many buildings with fibre as possible. Over the longer term, RJio’s offering will be a mix of fibre [FTTH], LTE and WiFi. Management explained that chargeable WiFi (not free) will be an integral part of the company’s

Read more

Can Reliance Jio Crack the Voice Market with 4G / VoLTE ?

Indian Voice MarketIndian Telecommunications even today is 2G Voice dominated market with operators expanding footprint into rural areas to get the best they can from the infrastructure they have rolled out over decades. Even until last Quarter over 85% of Telcos’ Revenues were from Voice. In this backdrop, Mukesh Ambani managed Reliance Jio Infocomm, has no viable low-cost voice strategy, may struggle to get subscriber traction as a pure data approach has struggled globally. Reliance Jio is likely to target Tier 2 / 3 Cities for their 4G LTE Launch as it was easier for them to acquire Right of Way and light its Towers with virtually unlimited Optical Fiber Carrying Capacity.

We highlight that globally TD LTE is likely to be used for data offload in markets where both customer affordability and data usage are high, suggesting a mismatch

Read more

Broadband Development Under NaMo – DoT Secretary

Mr M. F. Farooqui, Secretary, Department of Telecom met Analysts and was very optimistic in his views about the Telecom sector messed up by Sonia Gandhi led Congress Government in the last 10 years. Policy making, as well as implementation, is likely to be quicker under the new government, and decisions can be expected to be loud and clear, as per Mr Farooqui.

Broadband Bonanza likely to happen as Mr. Farooqui pointed out,

Read more

Will Internet Economics in US Shift from Content Aggregrators to Carriers ?

US FTTH RolloutToday, most US households have access to one or two wireline broadband providers. This suggests owners of last-mile infrastructure enjoy a favorable competitive position other segments of the video value chain. However, there are four potential rival technologies that could upset the status quo: 1) Fiber-to-the-home (Google), 2) Next Generation Satellite (EchoStar/ViaSat), 3) Fixed Wireless (Dish Network) and 4) Next Generation Wireless (Sprint). In this note, we explore FTTH economics. Verizon FiOS has built fiber to about 15% of US households. In these markets a new FTTH builder would likely achieve 33%

Read more

Reliance Jio 4G-LTE Launch will not Derail 2G Voice Business

Reliance Jio 4G Vs Traditional 2G VoiceReliance Jio Infocomm rollout can, at best, be gradual and, in part, complementary to existing telecom services and not competing and, as such, concerns are overdone about its entry in the 2G Voice Business. To understand this let us first have peek into RJio’s network.

Reliance Jio Infocomm’s Network Infrastructure Build Out
Reliance Jio’s 4G network will be built around 1.8GHz & 2.3 GHz, the company will need to deploy at least 0.15m BTS over next three years to have meaningful presence. In-building coverage will be an additional challenge that Jio faces as both the 1,800 MHz and 2,300 MHz spectrum

Read more

How Reliance Jio intends to Deploy & Use 1800Mhz Spectrum ? Voice or 4G LTE ?

Reliance Jio Home LTEReliance Jio Infocomm won 5-7MHz spectrum in 1800 band in 14 circles. These 14 circles account for 71%+ of industry revenues, and include all the metros and Category A circles.

Reliance Jio Infocomm in a press release said,
There are several mobile phones and devices available today which have the capability to operate both TD-LTE and FD-LTE technologies in 1800MHz and 2300MHz bands as well as conventional 2G / 3G networks. Rapid strides in global LTE rollouts and introduction of several new chipsets is making LTE enabled smart mobile phones and devices affordable. In any case, Wi-Fi enabled 2G/3G device can access RJIL’s services through an

Read more

Which is the Best Fit Spectrum for Reliance Jio Infocomm ?

Reliance Jio Infocomm Spectrum Bid MeetingReliance Jio Infocomm currently has a pan-India 2300 MHz spectrum which it acquired in the 2010 auctions. In our view, for a robust business model, R-Jio may need two bands of spectrum – one for capacity (which could be its existing band 2300 MHz or 1800 MHz) and one for coverage (which could be either 900 MHz or 850 MHz or 700 MHz).

In our view, to have a robust business model, R-Jio may look to get a coverage band spectrum which supports a mature LTE ecosystem in the future. This could be either 700 MHz (as and when the government auction it) and/or 850 MHz (as and when the government

Read more

Reliance Jio Infocomm – Airtel Deal – Mukesh Ambani’s Materstroke

Reliance Jio Infocomm - Airtel Deal AnalystsReliance Jio Infocomm [Jio] and Bharti Airtel announced a comprehensive infrastructure sharing agreement. The deal encompasses fibre (inter- and intra-city), towers, submarine fibre—and in future even joint laying of fibre and roaming on each other’s networks. In future, the arrangement could be extended into roaming on 2G, 3G and 4G networks, and even jointly laying optic fiber etc.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed except a phrase – arms length pricing which indicates that Jio is willing to pay market prices for the infrastructure and services that it avails from Airtel compared to the deep discounted deals Jio made with Reliance Communications.

Mukesh Ambani delivered a Masterstroke by first silencing his cash starved brother Anil Ambani squeezing the last drop from the two deals

Read more

Broadband / Mobile Internet in India @ Tipping Point – Big Take Off

Broadband Internet in India - Big Take OffIndia’s internet story is at a tipping point, underpinned by favourable demographics, expanding access to high-speed wireless networks, cheaper broadband connections, and a proliferation of cheaper devices. By 2015, we estimate India’s internet user base to rise to 300m, almost 3x the current base. Large, single-ticket deal sizes of private equity and venture capital funds indicate that well positioned companies are set for rapid growth.

A number of enabling factors for driving up India’s internet penetration are now in place. Affordability has increased due to lower access charges

Read more

Is Reliance Jio Infocomm Rolling Out FTTH Broadband Network along with 4G/ LTE ?

Reliance Jio Infocomm will launch 4G / LTE Services by the end of this year, at least in Delhi NCR and Mumbai region. According to Analysts in the Research community, their is a buzz that Reliance Jio Infocomm will launch FTTx [Home / Enterprise]

G V Giri @ IIFLCap said,

RIL may also use FTTX (Fibre to the x) to service the home and enterprise broadband market, chiefly the former. It may bundle broadband services of various hues above in a single offering

Goldman Sachs Report said,

RIL’s focus is on offering high speed services and considering that TDLTE ecosystem is at a nascent stage, we believe the company will focus more on fiber based fixed-line services and nomadic LTE (in limited areas) in the near term

Other Device & Services  that Reliance Jio will launch along with 4G LTE Launch is as follows,

Read more