Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani has offered some fresh insights regarding company’s Jio 4G service.
First up, Ambani said Jio, is the world’s biggest startup with an investment of Rs 150,000 crore. The service will kick start with 70% coverage of India and will offer mobile broadband speeds that are about 40 to 80 times faster than the current average speeds, he added.
The current data consumption in India is about 0.15GB per month, however with Jio’s network it will be increased to 10 GB per month for every user. Ambani further stated that the Jio service will be made affordable for consumers. It is said that Jio would target to expand the high-speed internet coverage in the country to over 90 per cent by 2017.
According to analysts Credit Suisse, Reliance is preparing for a soft launch of its 4G services next month following which users will be able to pick up a Jio SIM card for Rs 200. The SIM card will come bundled with free data and voice valid for three months. Just yesterday, we reported that the company has started shipping 4G SIM cards and Wi-Fi Dongles to Reliance Digital stores.
Reliance has launched LYF Flame 1, LYF Wind 6 4G enabled devices earlier this year. Jio had launched 4G services for its employees in December last year where it offered 75GB data and 4,500 minutes of calls. At present, it is not known if a customer needs to buy a Lyf handset to get the SIM, or if the SIMs will be sold standalone.