Though India’s telecom sector is still messed up, pan-India BWA spectrum winner Reliance Jio Infocomm (formerly RIL Infotel Broadband) and mobile operators, especially GSM ones under COAI are locked horns regarding the permission of providing voice services by 4G/BWA players as well as internet service providers.
In India internet service providers (ISP) were not allowed to provide Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) services. But Telecom Commission allowed this recently and operators lobbies started spat. Specifically GSM operators are not afraid by these ISPs, but they are really scared of Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL), which has the ability to disrupt market with low priced devices and low tariff plans.
This permission gives more competition in the market, and ultimately customers will have more options to choose from – a win-win situation for them. Incumbent players – Airtel and Idea states as such they do not forsee any immediate threat from RJIL, but their representative body COAI, which is nothing but more of the spokesman of Airtel, Vodafone and Idea cartel is critsizing Govt. and DoT for the move. They tried to stop the move by severe lobbying but it could not stop Telecom Commission to allow BWA players to offer voice services.
In response to COAI’s allegation RJIL sent a letter to Telecom secretary R. Chandrashekhar, which says: ”Rather than working for selfish and short term interests of its members, we would also like to appeal to COAI to work only in the interest of the nation and end consumers by fighting out the battle with the competitors in the open market rather than indulging in any disreputable practises,
Media report says Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries is going to play the similar price game to make Jio Infocomm another success. It is suggested that RIL subsidiary Jio Infocomm is in talks with Samsung to bring LTE-TD supported phones at as low as Rs 5,500.
Sudar March 19, 2013 at 10:11 pm
All service providers are cheating public with 3G tariffs with 2G networks. Still they have stretched their 3G network in entire states the hold 3G licensees.
rdwefdyujio March 12, 2013 at 3:42 pm
TRAI has to compare and check sms triff of bsnl … bsnl sms traiff is waste in tamilnadu beacause airtel stv36 for 3000 local and std for all network but bsnl stv36 1p for bsnl network , 12p for other network ……………………
bsnl cost for 3000sms is rs 156 and more but airtel & other network just rs 36 to 40rs in tamilnadu
jeet March 11, 2013 at 9:22 pm
india no1 bakwas gprs.
Speed only byts.
100kb downld in 3 min
Saravanan March 11, 2013 at 9:01 pm
Indian Mobile phone customers having the opportunity to enjoy high standards. Welcome move by Reliance Jio.
anoop March 11, 2013 at 7:08 pm
Reliance always gets backdoor entry by looting public money with the help of political parties.. First time they got telecom licence for voice services having limited mobility using cdma (WLL service) spectrum at cheap prices.. but they started voice service having full mobility…. after few years our “great politetians” made full mobility as legal……. this time they got 20 Mhz pan india spectrum for 12800 crores because of the absence of voice call facility at the time of auction.. and in 2013 they got the permission to provide voice service by paying just 1600 crores extra….. the same is happening in the case of 3g roaming too..
Rudradeep Biswas March 11, 2013 at 11:39 pm
Everyone is lobbying. Could Govt. stop A-Vo-Id’s 3G roaming? The cartel was lobbying too much not to allow voice services to ISPs & BWA players as the competition killed them during 2008-09-10 due to competition from new players. RIL is a company which has the power to dream to change India’s telecom sector.
Manish March 12, 2013 at 10:27 pm
Lobbying is one thing but lobbying is such a way as to dupe country’s exchequer is another.
Here what Anil has effectively done is, got the BWA+Voice pan India licence for 14,400 which if had been auctioned with voice would certainly have fetched much more. Whose loss ? We taxpayers !
Chirag March 11, 2013 at 5:58 pm
Reliance JAI HO!!!!!
imahesh March 11, 2013 at 12:51 pm
Want to launch 4G in May June 2013 In Mumbai…
Waiting 4G…….
Hate Vodafone, Airtel, Idea the lootersss….
anubhav11 March 11, 2013 at 12:39 pm
There is a rumor going on that AT&T might be investing in Reliance Jio Infocomm.
VENKAT March 11, 2013 at 10:38 am
Dear TT, i request you to post an article about how much an operator is investing per subscriber and how much they are investing for planting tower? It will be nice if you also post about new tower plan by reliance jio. Thanks in advance.
Tharun George March 11, 2013 at 11:57 am
+1
Rudradeep Biswas March 11, 2013 at 11:44 pm
It is not possible to get this info from the operators! Sorry to disappoint.
Next all news regarding RIL Jio are not confirmed, there are from sources or rumors. There are reports that Jio may replace street lights into 100 ft long 4G BTS, lay fibres over sewers and etc. There is also rumor that Jio may tie up with Rcom for Rcom’s CDMA spectrum for wide coverage & voice services to offer VoLTE with CSFB technology. But it is confirmed that Russian company SPIRIT DSP will help them to offer VVoIP.
arun March 10, 2013 at 10:33 pm
@ Tharun George..
sir,
which is the best operator in kerala..
now i am using idea 3g…
but the data packs are very costly.. and the call rates are high..
plz tell me who is the best network operator best for both data [3g] and voice calls…
plz reply..
Tharun George March 11, 2013 at 7:56 am
Idea has 2500 towers 3G enabled out of 5000 towers in the state. That is 50% kerala covered by 3G. Only Idea has a statewide 3G covering all towns in Kerala.
If you want cheap 3G + Voice, then its Aircel. But Aircel has almost stopped its service in Kerala and has 3G in 4 or 5 Cities. Similarly Docomo has 3G in 6 cities only. BSNL has 3G in most towns but rates are same as idea.
I am now using Reliance 2G. They give 30p call rate and 5p/sms and 100mb/month for 3 months for Rs 74 recharge. Also 20GB data for 3 months with 248 recharge or 1Gb for 7 days with 29 rechrge or 2.5Gb for 1 month with 63.
Reliance may not have good coverage as Idea, but has better coverage than Docomo or Aircel. Its 2G internet speed is 225kbps and is the fastest 2G in kerala after Docomo.
spiderman March 11, 2013 at 12:33 pm
Can you tell me which all 6 cities docomo has 3G coverage?
Tharun George March 11, 2013 at 5:14 pm
As per Docomo website, 3G only in 5 cities.
1. Ernakulam
2. THIRUVANANTHAPURAM
3. Alappuzha
4. Kollam
5. Perumbavoor
Docomo has not expanded its 3G network in long time.
Rinu March 12, 2013 at 7:32 pm
Your information on Reliance GSM GPRS plans are wrong, as they have changed their data plans with reduced data limit and validity. The updated data limits and validity of the plans that you have wrongly mentioned are given here for saving other readers from being misguided.
248 recharge – 4 GB – 45 days validity.
63 recharge – 450 MB – 14 days validity.
29 recharge – 200 MB – 7 days validity.
Tharun George March 12, 2013 at 10:48 pm
Yes you are right.
Only last month I did 248 and got 20GB. I was lucky. As every orther operator, now reliance also hiked its GPRS. Now only BSNL left to hike.
Mr. GANI March 10, 2013 at 10:30 pm
what venkat said may be possible because rel jio has paid less amount than gsm biggies. and also their tower set up cost just 1 lakh per tower and they are planning to plant nearly 1 lakh towers on their own which is almost equal to airtel tower number.
Arka March 10, 2013 at 8:57 pm
I am very much exited on Reliance Jio Infocomm for their much hyped 4G. I also heard that the project is expected to roll out in three phases — starting with Delhi & Mumbai later this year(may be 28th December ), followed by 69 cities by 2014 and over 800 cities by early 2015.
They also tied up with Samsung to offer their 4G services with bundle offers for devices and mobile,which will start from Rs.5500 only! And their bundle offers starts from Rs.100 only, that will be include data and voice offers.
RIL also finally decided to set up over 1 lakh telecom towers with an outsourcing company which will cost only Rs.1 lakh/tower.
Not only that. US telecom operator, AT&T will buy it’s stake 25%(that is $3.5 billion). Thus the total value of the company will be $14 billion!!
What’s More?? RIL targeting to be NO. 1 in Indian Telecom Industry and want to reach the break even point within 3years!!
So,friends just take your breath for a big big blow in Indian as well as world telecom industry. The A-Vo-Id group is already scared for RIL.
By d way,the 2nd round of Spectrum auction will starts tomorrow. MTS is the only bidder!
Tharun George March 11, 2013 at 7:49 am
Everyone is forgetting Reliance Jio has only 4G technology and no handset in India supports that 4G. We have to buy bundled handset from Reliance just like there CDMA.
Will anyone be willing to loose your current iphone and galaxy and get Reliance Jio handsets?
Arka March 11, 2013 at 12:48 pm
No dear.
RJI is already tied up with Samsung for mobile phone supply,which you ‘ll cost only Rs. 5500/-(budget 4G handset) and fully compatible with Indian 4G system. And Samsung has agreed to offer entry-level 4G smartphones at a little over $100 (about Rs 5,500) for use with RJI’s voice and high-speed internet services with data packages starting at as low as Rs 100. Now-a-days, A 3G handset is almost same price.
Samsung also do not want to loose the opportunity to capture world’s 3rd biggest market. It ‘ll also help Samsung to fight against APPLE in US market.
RJI is also like to introduce 4G pocket router,by which you can surf net almost 100 Mbps speed by your current iPhone/Galaxy/LUMIA etc etc.
Tharun George March 11, 2013 at 5:40 pm
Still samsung could offer 2 or 3 Budget phones.
Even though Indians don’t spend money on 3G, they have very high end Hand set from Samsung, iphone and blackberry. Will they those phones up for budget samsung LTE phones?
kavint March 10, 2013 at 8:05 pm
here going to come era
5p/ minute voip calls from rtel to rtel…
rs.5 for 50 mb
rs.100 for 5 gb
mts and reliance are set to sweep..
expecting mts to launch samsung galaxy s4 cdma diwali for 26,000… while gsm s4 to cost 38,000( launching price may differ to diwali offer)
reliance and lenova are in plans to launch dual mode phone( use cdma data– data calls via voip to cost 5p/minute.. while if coverage low will switch to edge/3g for continuance of the call)..
mts may follow it by use of mts application for android and windows8
phones/tab .. and start as default software in its own phones.. hence mts to mts will be free across all platforms..
KETAN March 10, 2013 at 7:55 pm
I SALUTE Mr. MUKESH AMBANI FOR HIS EFFORTS IN BRINGING 4G. IT WILL REMOVE ALL THE LOOTING PRACTICE DONE BY MOBILE OPERATORS IN THE NAME OF 3G. YOU ARE HEARTLY WELCOME IN TELECOM MARKET.
Sreenivasa reddty March 10, 2013 at 6:59 pm
We cann’t expect any thing new, why because the Big operators like Vodafone, Airtel and Idea will not allow in the name of termination fee.
Saurabh March 10, 2013 at 6:57 pm
@Venkat, You’re expecting too much from an operator who has to start from zero. You’re talking like RIL got spectrum for free and they don’t have to spend on infrastructure also.
As far as 3G spectrum price is concerned, it was not the Govt who set high price. The base price for 5MHz of spectrum was set at Rs.3,500 crore only and aggressive bidding by telecom operators shoot it to Rs.16,726.20 crores. Looking at the 2G data success in 2009-10 which came due to rock bottom pricing, telcos over-estimated the Indian data market and in the hope of making millions they bid aggressively for getting 3G spectrum. They thought, they will get the customers at the same pace like that 2G but forgot that users came in only when price fell under Rs.100 for monthly data plan. So their calculations went wrong and in the end it’s only them who are suffering. On the other hand Govt is enjoying Rs.67,000 crores they got by selling 3G spectrum and another 35,000 crores from BWA spectrum which is being popularized as 4G spectrum in India.
Reliance Jio Infocomm has paid over Rs.12k crores for spectrum and will have to spend twice of that on infrastructure initially. The data market is yet to mature in India. They’re taking a risk which has the higher possibility of going wrong. A company which has very little experience and struggled a lot in catering individual customer in their other businesses has a tough road ahead.
I’m skeptical about Reliance re-entry in telecom. They should be ready to taste the venom.
VENKAT March 10, 2013 at 10:23 pm
@SOURABH
I accept ur comment. i blamed gsm biggies for paying huge amount to 3g spectrum. please note that ril has good experience in telecom. initially reliance infocom owned by ambani brothers. later in 2006 anil got reliance infocom and changed the name to reliance communications. mukhesh doesnt want his brothers company to die so he named his company as reliance jio infocom. finally, i am not thinking that ril got spectrum for free. but if u compare the price paid per MHZ spectrum of 3g by gsmoperators, mukhesh paid less. thank you
Mr. GANI March 10, 2013 at 10:29 pm
what venkat said may be possible because rel jio has paid less amount than gsm biggies. and also their tower set up cost just 1 lakh per tower and they are planning to plant nearly 1 lakh towers on their own which is almost equal to airtel tower number.
Tharun George March 11, 2013 at 7:43 am
RIL has all the money it needs. Even though how much they spend, they need to bring innovation as they are new player. Just like Docomo entered the industry with 1p/sec offer Reliance Jio also has to bring innovations like that.
Mukesh Ambani is famous for bring 50p call rate on Reliance CDMA in 2005. At that time he said call rate will be lower than postcard. So we all hope he will bring Data and Voice his Reliance Jio.
Rohan Singh March 10, 2013 at 6:51 pm
Hope Uninor also launches 4G like Videocon plans.
Tharun George March 10, 2013 at 5:56 pm
All hopes are on Reliance Jio. Like Docomo entered market with 1p/sec offer, Jio will get with some good offer. Reliance can offer rock bottom tariff for voice as they will use VoLTE, similar to VOIP service of skype.
Airtel is forgetting that Airtel has highest number of 4G spectrum after Reliance, so they also get the advantage. But they want to use their high cost 2G/3G network for voice to 4G users. Since Airtel 4G was a failure, they want everyone less to fail on 4G. I call it corporate envy.
VENKAT March 10, 2013 at 4:33 pm
r com(ADAG) is alsonot playing fair game. it is giving 6gb high speed data at just 94 rupees including 10paisa sms. that too for 6 months. If u see net connect plans for 6gb they are charging 850rupees. even 1gb plan also 255 rupees. they can give low cost data as r com spent very less for cdma spectrum. come on r jio, change ur brother mind set also. rcom has the ability to grab data market by offering affordable data plans. but it seems it is not taking steps towards it.
VENKAT March 10, 2013 at 4:11 pm
I hope R JIO will kill cartel with their prices. Because the amount spent by r jiofor its bwa spectrum is much less than the amount spent by cartel. i also read somewhere that r jio developed new tower model which cost just 1 lakh rupees to establish a tower. So r jio has guts to offer high speed data at lower cost. NOTE: I am not against to the business doing by cartel. they spent more on 3g spectrum.they have right to fix their price. but i oppose the increase in 2g data tariff and capping of 2g data speed just to promote 3g. who asked them to pay such a huge amount? if they didnt participate in spectrum govt would have reduced the spectrum fee. i hope ambani will bury these cartel group who already digged their own grave by monopoly.
VENKAT March 10, 2013 at 3:54 pm
Hearty welcome to RJI. F**K these cartel who raised 2g data pack and capped 2g speed. let u make indian people to A VO I D this idiots.
Nirav March 10, 2013 at 2:37 pm
‘Jio’ Reliance
Esmail March 10, 2013 at 12:15 pm
I’m eagerly waiting for Reliance jio infocom to launch its services and start a fresh tariff war, the telecom industry has lost its dynamism lately, let us see the era where operators provide 1/2 p/sec voice local and national long distance and 1 p/SMS and 1 p/MB data with free national roaming with lifetime validity as base tariff without the need for monthly stv’s.
Riju March 10, 2013 at 2:50 pm
1p/sms – A great dream… the carrier charge is 10ps then how can they provide 1p/sms..
Sudheendra Rao March 10, 2013 at 7:25 pm
They can, if there were to to be no termination charges(currently 7ps i guess). but on net definitely.
kavint March 10, 2013 at 8:08 pm
mts already has it boss… iam using it past 2 years…
xcellent tariffs.
Esmail March 11, 2013 at 1:57 am
MTS had offered that tariff when it had just launched itself into the telecom industry and was struggling to make its mark and expand its subscriber base. At that point of time the Indian telecom industry had around 10 GSM and 3 CDMA operators on an average per circle, there was cut throat competition and severe tariff war between the telecom companies (Thanks to A. Raja the then telecom Minister who had provided new entrants with Pan India spectrum at low price). After 2nd Feb 2012 ruling of supreme court cancelling 122 licences ushered in a new era, where the lack of competition led to cartelisation and formation of AVoID group, even non cartel operators followed suit and hiked tariffs to promote STV’s and the attractive tariff offered as First recharge benefit for new customers which used to previously be lifetime validity is now offered only for 365 days max (Except for PSU’s).
anupam March 10, 2013 at 8:42 pm
its free on internet .. 4G=internet=freesms
Esmail March 11, 2013 at 1:46 am
Exactly, if way2sms and 160by2 can offer 100 free SMS per day per user via internet, I’m sure Jio Infocom can tie up with them by pumping in some extra cash and have it seamlessly integrated into the VoLTE enabled handsets.
The cartel of AVoID is gonna face tough times ahead retaining their costomers from porting to Jio Infocom.
Tharun George March 11, 2013 at 7:36 am
Everyone is forgetting one thing, that its 4G. Just like CDMA we need to get new handset in order to make calls or use its data.
Esmail March 11, 2013 at 4:07 pm
Definitely it is going to require the user to invest in a new handset, and it may probably even be locked to Jio Infocom, but if the tariff is significantly low, the phone will recover its cost in just over a year, its a small price to pay to break free from the monopoly of the AVoID group.
Tharun George March 11, 2013 at 5:17 pm
Yes but will anyone be willing to give up their precious iPhone and galaxy?
Reliance may launch galaxy phones, but only 2 or 3 models. Even though Indians don’t use 3G all have very high end mobile phones from Samsung, Apple and Blackberry.
Esmail March 11, 2013 at 6:04 pm
I am a loyal Apple iPhone user myself, but when its Mukesh Ambani in the picture and taking into account that AT&T has shown interest in buying 25% stake in the company, I wouldnt be surprised if Apple’s iPhone 6 which is due for release in early 2014 has support for LTE on 2400MHz band. India is one of the largest smartphone markets in the world and in Tim Cook’s era Apple has seen a huge strategy shift compared to Steve Job’s time if you consider some of its more recent product launches like the iPad Mini. Bottom line is that innovation will follow where there is a promise of monetary gains.
Ram mishra March 10, 2013 at 12:04 pm
good, now avoid cartel will taste some stiff competition.