Indian billionaire launches 4G LTE network with unlimited calls and 1GB data for 75 cents

What would you do if you were head of one of the largest industrial conglomerates in East Asia? Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, chose to launch a super affordable 4G LTE that grants 1.3 billion people access to super-affordable mobile communications service. Unlimited voice calling a 1GB of data will be available for the low cost of Rs 50 (75 cents a month) from the carrier Reliance Jio.

Jio’s network is lauded as the largest 4G LTE deployment to take place in anywhere in the world, with built-in future-proofing to hedge against the imminent rise of 5G and 6G network technologies. Jio’s 4G network covers 18,000 cities in the country, and spans over 200,000 remote areas and will reach 90% of the population by 2017.

As the world’s second most populated nation, India already offers the lowest cost call rates in the world, although data continues to remain expensive and inaccessible for the majority of subscribers. Lacking a suitable wired Internet infrastructure, mobile data is the ubiquitous channel through which most of the population accesses the Internet. Transitioning to a low-cost model will be a major benefit to segments of the population unable to access the Internet in any other way but through a smartphone.

By offering unlimited voice calls, Jio is expected to cause a huge stir in the nation’s telecom industry potentially poaching huge numbers of customers from India’s three biggest carriers — Airtel, Vodafone, and Idea—which still earn the majority of their revenue from voice calling. Already, Airtel’s stock dropped by 9% immediately following Ambani’s announcement earlier this month.

To lower the cost of entry, Jio’s smartphone brand Lyf is offering LTE capable phones at the Rs 2,999 ($45) as well as portable Wi-Fi routers from Rs 1,999 ($30). As an added incentive, Jio offers all new customers unlimited data and on-demand film and music streaming services until Dec. 31, 2016. Jio invested $22 billion into the telecom service, hoping to win out with new streaming technologies while its rivals have stalled. Customers looking for premium service can opt for the Rs 15,000 ($225) package which provides messaging, mobile wallet, security suite, magazine newsstand cloud storage, live TV access, and a news app, in addition to content streaming.

“While all the existing players were hoping to improve revenue-wise from increased adoption and usage of data services, RJio comes into the picture with latest in technology which is a real converged service platform based on IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) technology allowing them to definitely operate at a lower OPEX as you are not managing multiple platforms for each of the services for consumers,” writes Faisal Kawoosa, Senior Analyst with CyberMedia Research India.

Source: Mashable