Reliance Jio was supposed to start its commercial pan-India services in December this year, but a recent statement by the company suggests the roll-out may be delayed. The telecom operator further revealed it was launching its own series of 4G phones under the name Lyf.
The statement by Reliance Jio asserts that the financial year 2016 – 17 is projected to be the brand’s first year of commercial operations. This suggests a December release for the service provider may not be happening. The network player supposedly told analysts its launch is probably going to be delayed.
Dhaval Joshi, an analyst with brokerage Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd, stated that the unveiling of Reliance Jio is being postponed slightly from Q3FY16 to Q1FY17. Mukesh Ambani, the provider’s Chairman, had earlier said the service would be launched in December and 2016 – 17 would be its first complete year of functioning.
An unidentified telecom consultant informed Live Mint that although Reliance Jio has managed to set up infrastructure such as telecom towers for its wireless network launch, the brand’s integration of the service with its device ecosystem is taking up time. He attributes this to the discontinuity of its spectrum availability through all 22 circles in India.
Also See: Anil and Mukesh Ambani to share airwaves, offer 4G jointly
Reliance Jio currently has the largest amount of liberalized spectrum in the country, holding bandwidth across the 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2300 MHz bands. It further confirmed it’s been in contact with the DoT to share Reliance Communications 800MHz band to widen the net of its coverage. The company is in talks with other operators as well.
Reliance Jio has also announced it will begin selling phones under the brand name Lyf. There are no price or availability details about the 4G-ready series of handsets out yet. It’s set to come with features like Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWi-FI), Voice over LTE (VoLTE), HD Voice, and HD quality video calling.