Reliance Jio, led by Mukesh Ambani is all set to reenter the Indian telecom market, and this time, they have planned another mass inclusion scheme: 4G devices costing only $30 or Rs 1800-2000. As per reports coming in, talks are already on with leading Chinese vendors who specialize in manufacturing full enabled 4G devices at very less cost such as Gionee, Huawei and Xiaomi.
Once introduced, this is will mark three very important milestones: Return of Mukesh Ambani into telecom industry after a long time, and emergence of Reliance Jio as a national level telecom player; and lastly the scenario where Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio will directly compete against Anil Ambani led Reliance Communication to fight for the top 4G provider.
And considering the history of these Ambani Brothers, Mukesh is all set to make some serious dent in the industry.
Return of Mass Inclusion Into Telecom Services
In 2003, Reliance InfoComm introduced a telecom scheme which changed the market for ever: CDMA connections for only Rs 500 which included a handset as well. Launched across 100+ cities in India, this new plan brought in more than a million customers within 10 weeks; this was a new record in customer acquisition witnessed anywhere in the world. A record 30 million minutes of usage was witnessed every day.
When this plan was discontinued in December, 2003, Reliance InfoComm had spread across 700 cities and 7500 outlets, and made the process of having a new connection so easy that within 15 minutes of entering an outlet, a customer could have received a new connection, a new handset with cheapest tariff India had ever witnessed.
Telecom analysts term this as one of the biggest telecommunication revolution India had ever witnessed.
However, in 2004-05, tension brew up between the Ambani Brothers, and Reliance InfoComm was handed over to Anil Ambani and renamed to Reliance Communications.
Reliance Jio’s Target: 5 Million Customer in 50 Hours
The agreement between Anil and Mukesh Ambani regarding telecom services ended in 2010; and immediately Mukesh started ramping up the operations.
He founded Reliance Jio, with primary focus on infrastructural projects related with telecom industry. They are the only telecom company to have a Unified License for telecom services, pan-India, except Satellite based communication services. For 4G LTE services, they have rights in 22 telecom circles, by far the largest such rights for any telecom firm.
They have been testing waters and checking the quality of 4G services in the last couple of years: They rolled out 4G services for housing societies in Mumbai, with free 3 months of usage; launched free WiFi hotspots in Gujarat powered with 4G speed; rolled out WiFi services in Kolkata Metro; and announced plans of 4G services in Delhi and Mumbai (although we are still waiting for that); and even collaborated with Airtel to form a robust, solid network of 4G services across the country.
In the last 5 years, Reliance Jio has spent close to Rs 80,000 crore to develop infrastructure and connectivity for 4G services, and with the plans of $30 4G handsets, it seems that the circle is now complete.
Just like Reliance InfoComm revolutionized Indian telecom with Rs 500 CDMA handsets, this new plan from Mukesh Ambani can create ripples across the telecom industry.
As per insider sources, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio will aim for a sweep as they are planning to acquire 5 million customers within the first 50 hours of the launch.
Exciting times for Indian telecom industry!