Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director Reliance Industries today said that Reliance JIO will be the holder of the largest quantum of liberalized spectrum and can offer 2G, 3G and 4G services and with the longest residual spectrum life.
Reliance JIO has acquired spectrum in 14 key circles across India in the 1800 MHz band in the recently concluded spectrum auction conducted by DoT. It has entered the voice segment (Voice over LTE) for the first time and bought more spectrum to offer that for around Rs 11,054 crore.
RJIL has acquired the 1800 MHz spectrum at 31% premium to reserve price. Winning bidders ofthe 900 MHz spectrum paid between 55% to 110% premium over the reserve price.
Reliance JIO (RJIL) plans to use this spectrum, ranging from 2x5 MHz to 2x7 MHz in each of these 14 circles, in conjunction with its pan India 2300 MHz 4G LTE spectrum to address the expected surge in demand for digital services as well as to enhance in-building coverage. RJIL plans to provide seamless 4G services using FDD-LTE on 1800 MHz and TDD-LTE on 2300 MHz through an integrated ecosystem, company said in an official statement.
Reliance Jio plans to offer voice and high speed 4G data services on one technology standard to retail customers and to enterprises on another.The GSM 1800 MHz band spectrum that it has just purchased can be interchangeably used between second-generation voice services and 4G services.
RJIL is deploying an enhanced packet core network to create futuristic high capacity infrastructure to handle huge demand for data and voice. In addition to high speed data, the 4G network will provide voice services from / to non-RJIL networks.
According to Reliance JIO, there are several mobile phones and devices available today which have the capability to operate both TD-LTE and FD-LTE technologies in the 1800 MHz and 2300 MHz bands as well as conventional 2G / 3G networks. Rapid strides in global LTE rollouts and introduction of several new chipsets is making LTE enabled smart mobile phones and devices more affordable.In any case, Wi-Fi enabled 2G / 3G device can access RJIL’s services through an affordable pocket router.