All you need to know: Reliance Jio Infocomm 4G

Will finally grace India this year.

Reliance Jio Infocomm, earlier called Infotel Broadband, is already emerging as a popular name in the Indian telecom space as it gears up to introduce 4G services here soon. We do not have a definite time at hand but some people familiar with the matter told Reuters recently that the company would initiate the roll-out in New Delhi and Mumbai by the end of the year, followed by other cities. We are excited about 4G finally coming to India, but how exactly will the launch happen and who is bringing us the high-speed connectivity. Let us find out.

Reliance Jio Infocomm or RJIL is now a wholly owned entity of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). In 2010, at the end of the Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) or 4G spectrum auction in India, RJIL managed to bag a pan-India licence across 22 circles and paid a staggering sum of Rs 12847.77 crore to the government. The company can also launch voice services on their 4G network now.

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India uses the TD LTE frequency #40 (2.3 GHz) and barring a few phones like the HTC One, no device can claim compatibility yet. Incidentally, LG too plans to launch its LTE TDD capable phones in India later this year. Other countries where it also plans to launch these include China, Japan, Australia, and North America. LG had originally showcased handsets that are capable of running on the LTE TDD service earlier this year during the Mobile World Congress.

Among his other plans for 4G in India, RIL Chairman and CEO Mukesh Ambani is looking to offer 4G-capable devices costing less than Rs 5,000. Reportedly, RIL has been in talks with Samsung over its ambitions to bring 4G-capable devices at affordable prices. However, things don’t seem to be going smoothly here. The two companies are haggling over the price of the devices. Reliance Jio is looking at a price of Rs 5,000 per unit and Samsung has refused to deliver it for lower than Rs 8,500. Moreover, the Korean company is also pressurising Reliance to buy 3 million handsets at that per-unit price, with the price going up if fewer handsets were ordered. Reliance is also said to be talks with Huawei, in this respect.

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Last month, the Ambani brothers – Mukesh and Anil — signed a $2.1 billion telecom tower sharing pact. The deal followed an agreement signed in April to lease Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications’ optic fiber network to Reliance Jio Infocomm. Now here’s a good reason why you and I should look at this telecom tower sharing deal with interest. A recent Reuters report quoted Reliance Jio offical as saying that the deal would help them make the pace of the 4G rollout faster.

Clearly, there is a lot of excitement surrounding the 4G roll-out in India, especially with regard to what Reliance has in mind. "Our services will not be confined to only data and voice but there will be a bouquet of services catering to everyone's need ranging from telephony to social media," said one report quoting a source at the company's 39th annual general meeting.

The company is seemingly also preparing to deploy MiFi hotspots in the country alongside its 4G LTE deployment  plans. MiFi or My Wi-Fi is also referred to as wireless routers that act as mobile Wi-Fi hotspots. MiFi routers cover a much larger area and can bring high-speed wireless to large portions of a big city.

Bharti Airtel has also been in the race and despite offering 4G data services in select circles had not acquired the rights for Mumbai and Delhi, the two biggest markets. But recently it became the majority shareholder in Qualcomm's India-based high-speed wireless broadband units, after buying a 51percent stake over the course of a year. Qualcomm had won the rights for the two metros as well as two other circles, both of which will now pass on to Airtel. This will put them in direct competition with Reliance Jio, who were previously the sole 4G service provider in Delhi and Mumbai.

Confused about 4G? Here's 4G simplified. 

Disclosure: The Reliance Group has funded the promoter of Network18, which owns and publishes tech2.com