Reliance Jio today announced a digital literacy initiative in India that will assist the 4G operator to enhance its presence in rural areas of the country.
This new initiative called Digital Udaan will empower first-time internet users with digital literacy and understanding of the Internet. Reliance Jio had over 280 million users on its 4G network but its rural subscriber base was 100.47 million in 2018.
For comparison, Vodafone Idea had a total mobile phone subscriber base of 419.03 million including 220.71 million in rural India. Bharti Airtel had 344.30 million mobile phone customers on its 2G, 3G and 4G networks and out of this 168.63 million alone was in rural India.
Jio will use Digital Udaan initiative to engage with its users every Saturday to help them learn about the JioPhone features, use of apps and internet safety including use of Facebook on JioPhone. The company will conduct audio-visual training in 10 regional languages.
Reliance Jio has worked with Facebook, to ensure that modules developed for Digital Udaan, are relevant for people in these cities and localities, and will provide train-the-trainer sessions and training videos and information brochures.
Reliance Jio is starting the program in nearly 200 locations across 13 states. The initiative is soon expected to reach over 7,000 locations empowering millions of JioPhone users and other first-time internet users, said Akash Ambani, director of Reliance Jio.
Ajit Mohan, MD of Facebook India said Jio is playing a vital role in driving India’s digital revolution by empowering millions of Indians and expanding access to the Internet.
