Telecom network operator Reliance Jio Infocomm today said it has over 1.5 million test users on its 4G network.
Reliance Jio has achieved an average monthly consumption of data per user in excess of 26 GB. Average voice usage per month is over 355 minutes. Reliance Jio will expand the test program of 4G services into commercial operations in coming months.
Reliance Jio did not share specific date for the commercial launch of its nation-wide 4G services in India. Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and BSNL are the other 4G service providers in India that has around 900 million SIM subscribers.
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India are yet to disclose the number of 4G subscribers they have added since the launch of commercial operations.
The Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Jio extended its trial services to all LYF devices users under the Jio LYF Preview Offer. “This has enabled testing of all the services to customers outside the initial set of test users. The feedback has been very encouraging. All the digital applications have also been tested extensively as part of this program,” said Reliance Jio.
Reliance Retail has introduced 20 LYF smartphone models ranging from Rs 3,000 to Rs 20,000 in the Indian telecom market. The company has already sold more than 2 million smartphones through the distribution network since starting the channel.
The investment in LTE, FTTH and Wi-Fi will make high speed broadband access widely available to customers across India. This type of broadband access network offers high capacity, low latency services at an affordable price. Reliance Jio will enable IP-centric and content focused services, with the ability to offer rich, multimedia communication and digital services.
Jio’s spectrum details
Reliance Jio has total liberalised spectrum holdings of 846.10 MHz, including 440.0 MHz in the 2300 MHz band (one block of 20 MHz in all 22 circles), 213.60 MHz in the 1800 MHz band (blocks ranging from 2×3 MHz to 2×10 MHz in 18 circles) and 192.50 MHz in the 800 MHz band (blocks ranging from 2×2.5 MHz to 2×5 MHz in all 22 circles, including spectrum acquired from Reliance Communications across 13 circles.
In addition, Reliance Jio has entered into agreement with Reliance Communications for sharing of spectrum in the 800 MHz band across 21 circles. Only Reliance Jio is using sub-GHz spectrum band for LTE services in the country today. The combined spectrum footprint across frequency bands provides significant network capacity and deep in-building coverage.
Data to boom
Recently, HSBC said the monthly data consumption of Reliance Jio test customers is 20 times what some existing players have been able to draw. The important aspect to note is that Reliance Jio is not charging these 1.5 million test customers.
Bharti Airtel customers use 843 MB of data and Idea Cellular’s mobile Internet users consume an estimated 1 GB per month.
HSBC says smartphone penetration is expected to increase from the present 29 percent or 240 million subscribers to 39 percent by end of 2017-18. 3G / 4G subscribers will almost double to 240 million from the present 120 million and overall data subscribers at 370 million. Data consumption for the sector will be 1.5 GB by 2019-20 and average sector data revenue per user will be Rs 175.
Baburajan K
editor@telecomlead.com
