Reliance Jio Launches 4G Services, But Only For Employees as of Now

Reliance Jio is taking small but determined steps for their nation-wide launch of 4G services. In July this year, we had reported that their 4G services would be launched in December. Although not completely true, but yes, they have kicked-off a beta launch for a small circle.

As per reports coming in, Reliance Jio is offering their employees 4G enabled SIM cards and Volte handsets under their Lyf brand. The 4G SIM cards are being loaded with 75GB of data, while Volte handsets are being offered at 25% discount for their employees.

Additionally, their employees will get some apps for free as well.

As per an insider email sent to all Reliance Jio employees, it was said: “As a special offer to Reliance employees, now you can obtain from Jio up to four pre-paid SIMs (free of cost) each loaded with crystal clear voice, 4G and Jio Net Wi-Fi data, and full access to Jio Drive and Media apps.”

Reliance Jio has 50,000+ employees pan-India, and the handsets are prices between Rs 15,000 and Rs 30,000. Their employees can purchase these from Reliance Digital and Digital Express stores.

Reliance Jio has infact confirmed this development, as issued a statement: “The engagement with employees is part of our beta test phase, which will facilitate extensive validation of network and business platforms.”

We had reported last month that as per Import data accessed by us, we found that 5 lakh SIM Cards have been imported by Reliance in the month of October and had said that their launch is well on target. It seems that for time-being, they are focusing on a small launch for their employees to test the waters.

Recently, Reliance Jio has launched their own mobile wallet, and expanded their Jio Chat app to 9 countries; although apprehensions about their security features still remain.

4G Services Launch by Other Operators

Meanwhile, without much ado, India’s second largest mobile operator Vodafone has launched their 4G services in Kerala. Yesterday, the services were formally launched at Kochi.

With this, Vodafone has become 2^nd operator to launch 4G services, after Airtel. In a way, this is surprising, considering that Reliance Jio and Airtel were in race to be the first among 4G operators.

Idea is too very keen to start their own 4G services, as they have already bought Videocon’s spectrum in 2 circles by paying Rs 3310 crore. As per reports, they will launch their services by first half of 2016.

BSNL has already stated that their 4G platform will launch by March, 2016.