- Reliance Jio would play a key role in developing India’s 5G ecosystem based on the dynamics of the market, Reliance Industries said in its latest annual report.
Reliance Jio would play a key role in developing India’s 5G ecosystem based on the dynamics of the market, Reliance Industries said in its latest annual report.
For the issue of a floor price for mobile services, the company noted that market dynamics have improved in the recent past as reflected by operators’ tariff hikes in December.
The Government also expressed its intent to conduct the next round of spectrum auctions during the 2020-21 fiscal year, it said.
“Jio, based on market dynamics, would play a key role in the development of the 5G ecosystem in India with its 5G-ready network and extensive fiber assets,” the annual report stated.
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani said in his letter to shareholders that there are still millions of 2 G phone users who are unable to use the internet, highlighting India ‘s urgent need for a complete transition from 2 G to the 4 G era and beyond, and highlighting Jio’s opportunity to transform.
“JioPhone has successfully migrated nearly 100 million users of the first mobile phone (2 G) to the 4 G network in the last two years,” he said.
Ambani noted that the success of Jio in developing technology specifically for India and its potential to proliferate nationally has drawn global technology giants – Facebook and Microsoft – to establish alliances with it.
Reliance Jio continues to add subscribers with 387.5 million mobile data subscribers (as of March 31, 2020) at a rate unprecedented in the telecoms world, Ambani said.
Describing Jio as a key catalyst in creating India’s broadband data market, he said it is now the number one mobile telecom operator in the country by both adjusted gross revenue (AGR) and subscribers.
Reliance Jio is rolling out its state-of-the-art wireline infrastructure across homes and businesses, he said adding all of this would help to lay a strong foundation for providing digital services based on platforms.
Jio was connecting about one million homes with JioFiber services until March 2020, according to the report.
Ambani further claimed that the roll-out of the digital trade initiative would open up more growth opportunities for the organized retail industry and will harness customer power
“Reliance Retail and WhatsApp have concluded a commercial partnership agreement to further accelerate the Digital Commerce business of Reliance Retail on the JioMart platform using WhatsApp and to support small businesses on WhatsApp,” he said.
Furthermore, Jio said that market dynamics in the recent past have improved, as reflected by tariff hikes in December 2019, where all operators upward revised their tariff plans by up to 40%.
“During the year, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has also initiated a consultation process on the feasibility of establishing a floor price for mobility services in the country,” it said, adding that Jio would continue to actively engage with the regulator and industry stakeholders to drive growth for all.
On the issue of call connect charges, where interconnect usage charge (IUC) would be reduced to zero with effect from January 1, 2021, Jio said it accordingly introduced a charge of 6 paise/minute on all off-net outgoing voice minutes to pass through the impact of change in regulatory stance on IUC in October 2019.
“This has resulted in a significant improvement in the voice traffic mix as free voice service misusers have left the network and Jio is now an IUC net recipient. Jio continues to believe that the transition to the BAK (Bill and Keep) regime will accelerate the adoption of more efficient technologies such as VoLTE, which have a negligible cost to carry and serve essential voice services,” RIL stated.
Reliance Industries has secured more than 0.15 lakh crore from global tech investors including Facebook in recent months by selling a tad less than a quarter of its digital business and raising 0.53.124 crores by selling shares in the past few days to existing investors.
Sale of shares in Jio Platforms from brand names including Facebook, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG, L Catterton, and PIF.
