Reliance Jio 4G: Here are four points you need to know about the service

Mukesh Ambani has called it one of the lowest data pricing in the world, with rates starting at 5 paise per MB. The small plan starts at Rs 149 for 0.3GB data along with free voice-calling. There’s a Rs 499 Medium pack which with 4GB data. Reliance is offering users free data access at night to users, as well some extra GB of data free on JioNet. JioNet is going to be the company’s WiFi hotspot offering where a Jio customer will be able to access the internet for free without utilising their data plans.

All data tariffs come into play from December 31, but till then it’s a free service for anyone who signs up. So why is the Reliance Jio 4G launch such an important one?

Here’s a quick look at the top things to note about Reliance Jio’s 4G investment.

Watch Video: All you need to know about Reliance Jio 4G services 

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First: Reliance holds the 2300 Mhz spectrum across the country, 800 Mhz spectrum in 10 circles and 1,800 MHz spectrum in 6 circles. Reliance’s total investment in the Jio 4G is nearly Rs 34,000 crores. Ambani called it the company’s largest investment ever. The spectrum control is important because Jio is the only company which has the largest spectrum bank in the country compared to other players.

It should be noted that both Airtel and Aircel also use the 2,300 Mhz spectrum, while Vodafone and Idea are on the 1,800 Mhz spectrum. But Jio with its pan-India spectrum has a massive advantage compared to any other operator.

Second: No 2G, no 3G, this one is all about 4G. Reliance’s entire network is I- based and it will only offer 4G quality services. Reliance services will be using the all-LTE (Long Term Evolution) network. Also voice services will be routed through data packs, with Jio relying on VoLTE (voice over LTE). VoLTE allows for calls over the faster LTE network instead of regular voice networks. VoLTE promises higher call quality, and is better for video.

Third: Reliance Jio is all about creating an app ecosystem around its data services and for now it looks like a lot of this content will be free. This includes movies, television shows, magazines, video-calling, voice-calling, file-sharing. Even basic Lyf phones with Rs 2,999 pricing have all of these apps, and they will work for customers using the Jio services. So even those who can afford just basic smartphones will be getting access to free content on Jio’s services for one year. This is a big play from Jio, and could help it win more customers.

Fourth: With Reliance Jio, the plan is not just to look at 4G data on mobiles, but also expand to fibre-optic broadband for homes. The company has also laid more than 2.5 lakh kilometres of fibre-optic cables, covering 18,000 cities and over one lakh villages and claims to an initial end-to-end capacity to serve in excess of 100 million wireless broadband and 20 million Fibre-to-Home customers. Mukesh Ambani has already set a target of 100 million Jio customers for the wireless broadband service.

With Jio the promise is of affordable data, and free voice-calling something that has never happened in India. And all of this is going to be on a 4G network.