India’s largest private sector company Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is hoping to cash in on the smartphone boom with a raft of services. It is offering fourth generation (4G), long-term evolution (LTE) data and voice services for prices that are almost unbelievable.
RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Thursday unveiled a mega plan for the expansion of 4G mobile network. The company’s telephone offering Reliance Jio is set to launch world’s cheapest data at just Rs 50 ($0.75) per GB.
Mr Ambani said the company would seek to have 100 million customers in the shortest time
Not just that, Jio will not charge users for voice calls, including long-distance within India. And there will be no roaming rates. Students will be able to get 25 per cent more data on Jio’s main tariffs.
Most plans also come with data usage on JioNet Wi-Fi hotspots that the company is setting up.
The announcements were made at the annual shareholders meeting held in Mumbai.
“Jio is more than just a business. It is a commitment to enrich the life of every Indian,” Ambani said.
Jio has already reached 18,000 cities and towns, and 200,000 villages. The company plans to expand its coverage to 90 percent of the population. It aims to cover a large chunk of the population by March 2017.
The company also announced “super-affordable” handsets under the LYF brand starting Rs 2999.
Other leading telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and BSNL are closely following the developments. Concerned over losing their loyal customer base, few of them have lowered rates on data and voice plans.
Bharti Airtel in fact cut its 3G/4G data tariffs on prepaid connections by more than 40 percent.
Meantime, Ambani’s Jio is hoping to capture 100 million users within a year of launch. According to Morgan Stanley, Jio could have 40 million subscribers by the next fiscal.