Reliance Jio to commercially launch operations in October: CLSA

Jio may commercially launch 4G voice and high-speed data services ahead of festive season in October, even as the new 4G entrant has started to handle the second-highest data traffic among all telecom operators and could ramp up close to the highest even before launch, according to brokerage CLSA.

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“Several indicators suggest a strong possibility of commercial launch of Jio’s services within the next three months ahead of festive season in Octobre,” CLSA said, adding that Jio’s network can easily handle usage of 5 GB per month data each by over 100 million subscribers. Recent media reports however suggest that Jio may launch commercial services on August 15.

“This large capacity may form the core of Jio’s strategy,” the brokerage said in a note. “Using fourth quarter 2015-16 mobile data traffic (2G+3G) of incumbents, Jio’s network may already be handling the second-highest data traffic,” it said.

Reliance Jio recently extended its 3-month complementary service to non-LYF phone buyers of premium Samsung 4G phone models, and it may extend this offer to users of Apple as well as HP devices in the next few days.

A recent ET report said that the company has sent the data bundling proposal to almost all the smartphone vendors in the country, and may extend the preview offer to some Indian handset brands’ devices. Also, Jio is seen to kickstart its advertisement campaign soon as it has become the principal sponsor of India’s Olympic contingent for the 17-day event starting August 5. “This along with the launch readiness indicated by the management in its post (Q1) results analyst meet suggests an imminent launch,” CLSA added.