Reliance Jio Infocomm is India’s only 4G operator. The good news is it has finally signed a MoU agreement with Kolkata’s city civic body – Kolkata Municipal Corporation to get the license to lay fiber optic cables across the metro.
It was Tarun Jhunjhunwala, the business head and state mentor (east) of Reliance Jio and Mayor-in-Charge Atin Ghosh who signed the deal. Reliance Jio will one have to pay a one-time fee of Rs 26 crore to city’s civic body. Reliance Jio is expected to start the laying work of 750km OFC by mid-October, probably after Durga Puja.
The cost of the project is estimated to be around Rs 4,000 crore and is likely to be completed during the first quarter of 2014.
For rest of Bengal circle Reliance Jio plans to lay 3000 km of OFC to roll out 4G services in 54 towns. The project will also create 5000 job opportunity in the state.
Ciena to Install NLD Network for RJIL
There is this news brewing up in the market that Reliance Jio has appointed Ciena for the installation of National Long Distance network. According to earlier updates, Alcatel Lucent has procured the GPON, FTTx and metro DWDM parts; Samsung got radio access and packet core network portions deal; and Ericsson asked for WiFi component. But not confirmation about the deal is made so far.
Tech Mahindra should bring Solutions for Reliance Jio 4G
According to sources, Tech Mahindra has roped in by RJIL to create various specialized solutions for later’s upcoming 4G services. It has been learnt that two sister companies of Tech Mahindra are working on simultaneously. CanvasM was supposed to deal with digital promotion, network and utility VAS and solutions for innovations in messaging, content, voice and data. While Mahindra Comviva might provide mobile banking/financial services – a card-free and cash-free transaction services for Reliance Jio 4G consumers. However, the deal is yet to be made official.
Airtel Inks makes Deal with Kolkata Civic Body
It has been brought to light that Bharti Airtel has also signed MoU with KMC for laying OFC in the city. P. G. Sharma, Airtel’s eastern region CEO signed the agreement and said the company will lay 400 km of OFC across the city. The work is expected to start after Durga Puja.
Reliance Jio to Participate in Spectrum Auction
According to many analysts, Reliance Jio may take part in the upcoming spectrum auction of 1800MHz and 900MHz band. This move is expected to be beneficial for the company as TRAI proposed 60% cut on spectrum price in comparison to the previous auction.
Though buying 900MHz spectrum for LTE may not be a good option and globally 900MHz band is generally used for basic 2G telephony but this band can help Reliance Jio to roll out voice services and share the network with Reliance Communications.
But, 1800MHz spectrum seems to be a better option if RJIL sticks to 4G only.
Globally LTE-FDD over 1800MHz accounts for more than 40% of total LTE roll out, so LTE1800 has more mature ecosystem than any other LTE ecosystem. Still while having 2300MHz spectrum across all 22 circles it is not sensible decision to buy another band of spectrum. The decision will have to be made between LTE-FDD and LTE-TDD. Lets see what do they pick.
It can be easily estimated that the presence of Reliance Jio will definitely make the auction aggressive and a pricey affair for Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Loop who are to renew and secure 900MHz spectrum in many circles.
iPhone 5c LTE from Indian Players Bags very Less Chance
According to what media is reporting, there is little chance that Airtel and Reliance Jio could offer iPhone 5C LTE phone on their LTE networks. Both companies are looking for cheaper devices to break the price barrier between 4G and mass market. Only Huawei has launched a LTE-TD phone with Airtel and that too is not official yet.
The main reason behind the rejection of iphone 5c is its sky touching price. Because of Qualcomm chipset iPhone 5c could support several LTE bands including LTE-TD Band 40. Apple has not revealed the chipset yet, but it looks like RF360 from Qualcomm which supports 40 LTE Bands to enable global LTE roaming.
Akshay Agarwal
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