reliance 4g services

Will Reliance Jio Infocomm become top Telecom operator in India by 2015?

India has only 10.7 million broadband subscribers, compared to over 600 million mobile phone subscribers in the country. The number of Internet users is estimated at 121 million--of which 20 million are on mobile Internet--and is expected to increase to over 400 million by 2015.

Bhatia from Gartner mentioned "India is deficient in terms of fixed broadband and LTE can give it a push." However, it is also a highly price-sensitive market and operators need to offer the right package at the right price, he noted.

Recently, ABI Research said fueled by investments by Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries, TD-LTE subscriber adoption in India will reach 5 million by 2013. The telecom research firm said WCDMA and TD-LTE subscriber adoption will eclipse 90 million and 5 million by 2013, respectively. 

5 favorable reasons for Reliance broadband

1. Management has previous experience in set up of pan India telecom operation from scratch

2. Holding companies has necessary financial strength. It may attract FDI  considering adavatageous position in market.

3. Reliance can collaborate with any existing established operators to get quick access to large customers with good ARPU

4. They have one of the best & latest Telecom infrastructures

5. Opportunity to buy 800 MHz band

8 challenges for Reliance 4g services

1. RIL is always successful in B2B area. They need to increase brand awareness for success in B2C domain

2. CAPEX for pan India operation with existing wi-fi band will be very costly. ARPU need to be very high to have at least positive operational cash flow.

3. Quality of voice & support off features like voice & data roaming in 2G , 3G & CDMA networks

4. Users might require another LTE handset which might impact quick market penetration

5. Call rate need to be high to maintain positive operational cash flow unless it is highly subsidized

6. Seamless roaming between 4g to 2g/3g  or CDMA network.

7. Migrating subscribers from other networks to Reliance Jio. I'm not sure how many people will be ready to subscribe 4g network. One option might be to merge with other national career or start a new network with 700 MHz.

8. Dependency on regulation to allow fixed number portability.

Reliance's 4G network would be the largest of any outside the U.S. and Japan. India is expected to have more 4G wireless subscribers in four years—37 million—than Brazil, Russia or Indonesia, according to consulting firm Ovum. China is on the 4G path, too, and it is expected to have a much larger user base than India eventually, but it has yet to commence any commercial 4G roll outs.


So far, Bharti Airtel Ltd.  is the only one to have launched 4G services in India, in the cities of Kolkata, Bengaluru and Pune. — Gagandeep Kaur, Editor, Light Reading India

Update on 7th Mar'13 -

1) Samsung, RIL team up, plan 4G phones @ Rs 5,500
2) AT&T may buy stake in Reliance Jio to make Reliance JIO 4g service provider a  USD 14 billion company who will break even in 3 years.