Reliance Jio tops 4G chart with 18.8 Mbps download speed in January: TRAI

Reliance Jio recorded the fastest download speed in the month of January this year, followed by Airtel. As per the data published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on MySpeed Portal, Jio registered an average 4G download speed of 18.8 megabits per second (Mbps), compared to Airtel’s at 9.5 Mbps.

The 4G performance of Vodafone and Idea were measured separately by TRAI, given the merger of the two companies is still underway. The two telecom operators recorded an average download speed of 6.7 Mbps and 5.5 Mbps on 4G network respectively in January.

As for upload speeds, Idea continued to top the chart in January with 5.8 Mbps speeds, followed by Vodafone at 5.4 Mbps. The average upload speeds of Idea and Vodafone picked up in January after a drop in between the months of October and December.

In October, Idea and Vodafone registered 4G average upload speeds of 5.9 Mbps and 4.8 Mbps respectively for the month of October. In December last year, the upload speeds recorded for the two operators were recorded at  5.3Mbps and 5.1Mbps respectively.

Reliance Jio and Airtel took the third and the fourth spot with average upload speeds of 4.4 Mbps and 3.8 Mbps respectively.

The average speed computed by Trai is based on data it collects with help of its MySpeed application on a real-time basis. The MySpeed app can be downloaded for iOS from the Apple App Store and Android from Google Play Store respectively. One can view upload and download average speeds of telecom operators in India in map and chart view.

Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/reliance-jio-tops-4g-chart-with-18-8-mbps-download-speed-in-january-trai-5590908/ 

Reliance Jio Aiming for Better and Smarter Smartphone Experience

Data limits and bandwidth distribution has become an issue up to date to most smartphone users across India. Is there a remedy for this? Smartphone users are eager to see what Reliance Jio has to offer after having to endure the fluctuations of smartphone data occasionally. The good news for smartphone users is that Jio, in the first quarter of the financial year 2016-2017, will launch high-speed 4G LTE services pan India.

Reliance Jio is expected to breathe some life into the country's vast network infrastructure by boosting what was already there; that is the 2G and 3G networks with a fast 4G network across the country. What should you expect from Reliance Jio? Below are some of the services Jio is going to offer.

Jio will improve the overall productivity of the country since in the current times network is termed to be a fundamental need for an economy to advance and be termed productive.


How will Reliance Jio thrive in the market?

After the brief intro, you will want to know more about this network company. Currently, Jio's services are available and applicable to Lyf Smartphones that are being tested and standardized before being released for the wider market across India. In estimation, up to 1.5 million smartphone users are using the smartphones under Reliance Jio services. In addition to that, plans are underway to incorporate other phones such as the iPhone to their services.

There have been other market players regarding network provision, Reliance Jio is expected to face stiff competition from the already existing network providers. For Jio to accomplish its goals; providing fast and reliable 4G network across India, it will have to rise above what other similar companies are offering.

How has Reliance Jio tackled its competitors? You will want services from a provider that has something extra and helpful from the rest. Jio has made it easy to access a lot of apps that improves productivity since they are rooted in communication and also recreation.

What Are Jio's Focuses and Targets?

Every company's objective is to provide quality and reliable goods and services. That is also the case when it comes to Jio. The goal of Reliance Jio is to provide clear and uninterrupted 4G network services to everyone across the country.

The tariffs rates offered by Jio are significantly lower taking into consideration their 4G network provision compared to other companies that are or may want to compete with it in providing similar services. Amazing, isn't it? Looking at other service providers that have been in the market, there has been significant data and bandwidth interruptions. Reliance Jio will have to tackle this deficit brought about by the already existing network companies.

What Else Does Jio Offer in Addition to 4G Networking?

In addition to 4G services, Jio also offers smartphone apps. What mobile apps are you using? Before buying a smartphone, most customers ask about the applications it has or can support. Jio has brought goodies in the form of more reliable fast and user-friendly 4G application. Some of the applications Jio offers include:

• JioXpressNews - Being up-to-date with what is happening across the world, in general, is fundamental in the developments of both individuals and nations at large. This app focuses on keeping you updated. You will be the first to catch latest news and stories from among the best sources across the country.

• JioChat - The app has been modified to have newer demographic. You can now experience efficient and fast communication. Besides, you can have quality video and audio conferencing at ease.

• JioPlay - With this app, there will be no need to have a TV set wherever you are. You can access over 300 TV channels simply and efficiently using this application. There are over 30 HD channels waiting for you to enjoy using this app.

In conclusion, the central question from eager customers is when the services will be available for the entire country to experience? Not to worry, Jio is in its final stages to establishing itself to be able to penetrate the market so as to establish dominance all over the country.

Source: Huffington Post India

LYF smartphone could be $1-bn brand in 2016-17, says CLSA

Reliance Retail's LYF smartphone could become a USD 1 billion brand in 2016-17 and corner a market share of about 7 per cent, brokerage firm CLSA predicts in a report.
"Achieving about 7 per cent market share of the estimated 137 million smartphone sales in FY17 will mean sales of 10 million units. This could make LYF a USD 1 billion brand using an ASP (average selling price) of USD 100," CLSA said.

The LYF handsets are available in the price range of Rs 4,799-19,499 per unit.
According to CLSA, LYF has launched its own range of smart televisions priced between Rs 65,990-1,99,990 and plans to enter the mobile accessories segment.
Sales growth in LYF smartphones, the firm said, "could drive a 31 per cent year-on-year bump to Reliance Retail's financial year 2016 revenue of Rs 216 billion".

Ahead of its commercial launch, Reliance Jio has thrown open its service to the public on a trial basis for free. A person can buy its SIM only after getting an invite from an employee of a Reliance Industries group firm.
The other rider is he will have to buy an LYF handset being sold by Reliance Digital to avail of the service.
"Sales will also get a boost from the ongoing invite-based offer for Jio's 4G services, which is exclusively for buyers of LYF phones," CLSA said.
Under the scheme, an RIL group firm employee can invite 10 people to buy Jio's 4G SIM cards and LYF handsets. The connection will come bundled with unlimited 4G mobile Internet and phone calls for 90 days, all for free.
"With users getting three months of free data usage along with a large quota of voice minutes and SMS, the value proposition of LYF phones has been further enhanced. This could boost demand at least temporarily," CLSA said.
The company started selling LYF smartphones in January after Reliance Jio offered its 4G service to RIL group employees

Source: TOI

Reliance Jio Money Wallet silently launched on Google Play Store

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd's (R-Jio) digital wallet app JioMoney has made a quiet debut on Google Play Store. JioMoney is a semi-closed prepaid wallet that aims to enable mobile-based transactions, where customers can store money and use it for purchasing goods and services.
With its Jio Money digital wallet, the company aims to enable mom-and-pop shops to accept cashless payments through smartphones.

An industry insider said that the company has tied up with over 50,000 online merchants for the service. With JioMoney, users can do mobile and DTH recharges, send/receive money, make bill payments, pay insurance and other premiums et al.
JioMoney is powered by 4G small cell technology and is said to be platform-independent. Customers can use JioMoney's digital wallet, a Jio Money card or any other credit/debit card directly from the wallet to pay merchant seamlessly and instantly. JioMoney digital wallet also gives consumers the option of opening a Digital Bank Account or linking their existing account. Last October, Jio started testing JioMoney Merchant for small and large merchants. The service allows owners of any kind of business to create an account with the company and start accepting payments.

 

According to the company, the benefits for the merchants include integrated billing & payment system, inventory management, online ordering, accounts and book keeping, customer profile, credit and campaign management.

In November 2015, RBI gave mobile wallet licence to Reliance Payment Solutions for its JioMoney service.

Source: TOI

Reliance launches LYF Water 5 smartphone with 13MP camera & VoLTE support

Reliance has expanded its LYFsmartphone range with the launch of LYF Water 5 smartphone. Priced at Rs 11,699, the LYF Water 5 is exclusively available on Amazon.
The handset comes with dual-sim functionality and VoLTE support like other smartphones in the LYF series. Reliance LYF Water 5 has a 5-inch HD display of 1280x720 pixels resolution protected with Dragontrail glass on top.



Source: TOI

Reliance Jio’s LYF smartphone make it to top 5

While companies across the globe struggled to sell phones last year, India offered them relief with a 23% growth in buying phones.

Peter Richardson, Research Director at Counterpoint Research said, “India which surpassed USA to become the second largest smartphone market in terms of users has continued to register strong demand for smartphone. There is a massive opportunity for every player in the mobile value chain when the second largest market by volume is still under penetrated and growing, while the rest of the world smartphone demand has waned. India is the next China.

“To provide some colour, more than a billion smartphones will be sold in India over the next five years. This will drive the number of smartphone users from quarter of a billion to more than half a billion in the same time period, which will still be just 55% of the total population. Furthermore, the advent of advanced 4G LTE network infrastructure will also be a key catalyst in the country’s smartphone adoption in coming years. The role of players such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel will be important to drive this growth by leveraging an ecosystem-level approach.”

According to their report, Reliance Jio, even before launching their SIM cards to the public has managed to make a dent in the Lyf brand of smartphone market. “A surprise in the quarter was the rise of Reliance Jio’s Lyf brand in first quarter of its inception, to top 5 position in the smartphone segment capturing 7% market share. This is the level of scale Jio is targeting once it switches on its LTE network later this year. We estimate, this quarter strong shipment was more of channel filling, the actual sell-through will happen in Q2 2016 as the operator starts full-fledged marketing and promotional activity. Lyf also instantly jumped to become the second largest LTE phone supplier surpassing Micromax & Lenovo during Q1’16,” said Conterpoint Research.

Source: Hindustan Times

Reliance Jio will fight competitors on quality of service: Top executive

Reliance Jio Infocomm will not fight competitors on the price front, but on quality of service, a top company executive said, as the Mukesh Ambani-owned telco tried to deflect talk of a cheaper offering ahead of its impending 4G services launch.

"We are not saying we will lower the price, but we will create a better experience," Rainer Deutschmann, chief product and innovation officer, told ET, adding that if customers want true 4G experience, they would need devices built for it. "People are willing to pay for connectivity, but don't like to pay if they don't get an experience."

In his first media interaction since taking on this role in 2014, the former Deutsche Telekom executive said the data prices in India are "already at such a low level" compared with other markets. His comment comes in the backdrop of fears that Jio's entry would trigger a fierce price battle in the industry.

Source: TOI

Mobile tower radiation have no impact on health: Experts

SHILLONG, March 30: Allaying fears on mobile towers being a contributory factor to health hazards and decline of agricultural and horticultural production in the state, four top experts including the Director of the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGHRIHMS) Shillong Dr AG Ahangar termed the fear as a ‘misconception’.

In an interactive session held at Shillong on Wednesday, the experts said this.

Dr Ramesh Teegela of Grace Cancer foundation said, “There is no scientific data to indicate the existence of cancer risk from mobile towers emissions”, even as he cited the findings carried out by the World Health Organizations’ (WHO) and the United States Food and Drug administration (USFDA).

He said that these unfounded fears has created panic amongst the common man and will affect the upcoming city like Shillong.

Dr A k Ayangar, Director of NEIGHRIMS, stated that although there were some notions that mobile towers cause health hazard, nowhere in the medical literature stated that the mobile towers have the ability to affect the human DNA.

The Director of NEIGHRIMS while laying into rest on the concerns that the patients with pace maker and stands in their heart could be affected by EMF radiation, said, “As an open heart surgeon I can say that it is misleading”.

Both the super medical specialist, however, cautioned that there should be a judicious way of using the handset and to dismiss the notion of Mobile towers being the source of health concerns.

Ex-officio Secretary and former member (Technology) Telecom Commission of India, SS Sirohi said, “India follows one of the strictest norms in permissible levels of EMF emissions, which are ten time more stringent than the international standards prescribed by the WHO.

Asked specifically on the EMF impact on plantations and other species especially when there have been insinuations about the so called impact on the citrus fruits, broom sticks cultivation within the periphery where the mobile towers are based, Sirohi said, “There is no direct evidence. Other factors like climate change, air pollution, use of pesticides and others could have come into play,”

Source: Sentinel Assam

Jio to offer 40-80 times better mobile broadband speeds in India, says Mukesh Ambani

Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries took the stage at FICCI FRAMES 2016 and spoke about the future of digital media and Reliance Jio services.

Addressing the audience, Mukesh Ambani mentioned the Indian media industry has grown by 9 times in the last 12 years. The total value, he says, is expected to hit $100 billion in 10 years. Calling Jio the “world’s biggest startup,” he added that the Rs 1,50,000 crore investment in the service is because he sees digitisation as the “defining trend of the century.”

Adding the “the best is yet to come for the Indian media industry,” Ambani said that Jio would significantly up the quantity and quality of mobile broadband coverage by 80-100 times. He expects Jio to offer coverage to 90 percent of Indians and also speeds that are 40-80 times greater than the current average.

Speaking of the potential of digital media content and accessible broadband, Ambani said that an affordable video network would change the way we learn.

“It will revolutionise education in India. We’re moving from audio to video,” he said. Adding in that the world was graduating to a tele-media world and that we are now part of a tele-media front.

He ended with a statement indicating that Reliance Jio would do its best to support and boost the Digital India initiative because it’s about bringing people together and join the Digital India movement.

Also at the event was Uday Shankar, CEO of StarTV, who spoke about how story-telling, coupled with technology would change the world.

Referring to Jio, Uday Shankar said, “I have never seen such anticipation for a product even before its launch.” He went on to say that there was a tectonic shift happening in the industry, that change was happening faster than anticipated.

“We are looking at a truly global world which has no patience,” he added.

FICCI is the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry. It’s a non-government, non-profit organisation that works with closely with the government on policy issues related to Indian businesses and the industry.

FICCI FRAMES is the biggest event of its kind in Asia and is claimed to be the foremost business conclave in the entertainment industry.

FICCI FRAMES 2016 is running from 30 March to 1 April at the Renaissance Centre in Powai, Mumbai.

Source: First Post

Jio Join app: First look and comprehensive feature review

We recently shared with you the initial impressions of the Jio Mi-Fi pocket router which acts as a bridge between non VoLTE smartphones and voice services on Jio’s 4G LTE network. Today we would like to share with you the look and design of the app which makes this possible and brief you about its features and capabilities.

Jio join app is a one stop solution for all calling and texting needs for users who wish to enjoy these services on Jio’s 4G network without relying on a fall back to 3G or 2G network of a partner operator. Calls made over the LTE network offer HD voice with better clarity than analogue cellular voice. Jio Join app can be installed on 4G smartphones lacking VoLTE  or even on WiFi enabled non 4G smartphones to be used in conjunction with the MiFi device. Layout wise the app has a minimalistic approach with 3 neat sections for contacts, messages and calls. For phones which will only be used on the Jio network, the app can be set as the default dialer to make outgoing calls. For phones which have another operator’s sim inserted and wish to make calls through the connected Jio MiFi device, the Jio Join app will prompt each time a number is dialed from the stock dialer and ask whether the call should be placed on cellular network or routed as a VoLTE call on the Jio network.

The contacts section has 3 sub sections for favourites, All contacts and contacts who have Jio Join app installed. Clicking on a contact’s display pic gives a popup card which gives options for chatting (SMS with non Jio join users or instant messaging for Jio join users), audio calling, video calling or sharing of files (with other Jio join users). Other features exclusively available for calling Jio join users include Rich call and Urgent call. A rich call allows the caller to attach a customised short message, a photo and a GPS location which would give a brief idea to the receiver of the call what the purpose of the call is even without picking it up. Also calls can be marked as urgent to ensure they are picked up on a priority basis by the receiver.

The video calling interface is pretty standard as visible in the screenshot above. During a live video call the options available are mute and unmute the microphone, mute or unmute the speaker, switch on or off the camera, put the call on hold, pull up the dialer pad, switch between front and back cam, send a text message or attach and send a file. The design is intuitive and user friendly. An indicator towards the top left indicates the total call duration and the current signal strength.

Jio join can be set as your default SMS client. The layout of the messages section is very similar to that of the Jio chat app. Clicking on a conversation reveals the chat window with the conversation in thread view. To non Jio join users you can send regular SMS and to fellow Jio join users you can send instant messages, share images, videos, voice recordings, GPS location, .zip and .pdf files. To the top of the chat window there is a phone icon which acts as a shortcut to place a VoLTE call to the person you are chatting with.

Note: All data consumed while making a voice call to non Jio join numbers through VoLTE on the Jio network is zero rated and only the per second or per minute calling tariff will apply just like a regular GSM call and the same applies for data consumed in sending and receiving SMS to non Jio join contacts. However when making a call through VoWiFi on a third party non Jio WiFi network, the subscriber may be charged for the data consumed by his broadband provider. All calls and instant messages to fellow Jio join users will be free.

Source: Telecom Talk

Reliance Jio sister company launches entry-level VoLTE smartphones, LYF Wind 6 and LYF Flame

Reliance Jio's sister company, Reliance Retail, has expanded its LYF smartphone portfolio with the launch of entry level LYF Wind 6 and LYF Flame 1 devices. The company has priced these smartphones at Rs. 7090, and Rs. 6490, respectively.

These phones are available across India in more than 1,20,000 retail outlets through a network of more than 1200 distributors.

The company said that the two devices represent one of the most affordable and superior entry-level smartphones in the Indian market. Both the devices support VoLTE and VoWi-Fi, which will deliver a true 4G experience when used on a VoLTE supporting network.

"With Wind 6 and Flame 1, everyone can experience HD-quality voice and video calls, multi-party voice and video conferencing, Wi-Fi calling, high-speed Internet, and seamless switching of a call from the service provider's network to any available Wi-Fi network," the company said in a statement.

Both Wind 6 and Flame 1 come with a Qualcomm Snapdragon Chipset and 1 GB RAM. Both the devices feature a 5MP front camera, apart from a 5MP rear camera, with special modes such as blink detection, smile detection, etc. A complimentary transparent back cover makes for an attractive proposition.

Wind 6 has a 5-inch IPS display, 1 GB RAM, and premium gloss finish.

Flame 1 is available in four vibrant colours - white, black, dark blue, and dark red, while Wind 6 is available in white, black, and gold colours.

Source: ET Telecom

Reliance's Valentine Day offer; launches LYF-4G mobiles at Rs 6,399

Reliance Retail Ltd, subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd, has introduced limited edition LYF-4G mobiles cashing on the Valentine Day celebrations. Reliance Retail has released specially designed limited edition range of LYF devices under the "Togetherness Offer" to be available in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Jaipur, a company statement said.



The handsets - Flame 1 and Wind 6, priced at Rs 6,399 and Rs 7,099 respectively, would be offered with a bouquet of offers that can be used at places like Mainland China, Cafe Coffee Day and others.

Reliance Retail would also sell its power bank at 40 percent discounted rate at Rs 720 and selfie-stick which is sold normally at a price of Rs 999 will be retailed at Rs 600 a unit, the release said.

Source: Zee News

Lyf Earth 1 Hands-on and first impressions

Ahead of Reliance Jio’s 4G LTE launch in India, Reliance Digital, retail business part of Reliance Industries, has launched three new smartphones under a Lyf brand. The new smartphones — Earth 1, Water 1 and Water 2 — are priced between Rs 15,499 and Rs 25,800, and come with support for VoLTE network, which will be available with Reliance Jio’s 4G service. We spent some time with the Earth 1, which is the top end smartphone of the Lyf series. Here are our first impressions of the smartphone.

The Earth 1 is officially priced at Rs 25,800, but is available on Reliance Digital with a 7 percent discount, for Rs 23,990. The smartphone comes with top of the line specifications, taking on the likes of a wide-range of high-specced Android smartphones. The Lyf Earth 1 has a 5.5-inch full HD display. It runs on Android 5.1.1 and is powered by a Snapdragon 615 processor along with 3GB of RAM.

The smartphone comes with two cameras on the rear — a 13-megapixel primary camera and a 2-megapixel depth sensor — and a 5-megapixel front facing camera with an LED flash. It comes with 32GB of built-in storage, and supports expandable storage up to 32GB via microSD. Connectivity options include dual-SIM support, USB, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It is powered by a 3,500 mAh battery.

Along with a competitive set of specifications, Reliance has also focused on the design of the phone. The Earth 1 has an aluminium alloy frame on the sides, while the rear has a Gorilla Glass cover. Despite a glass back and a 5.5-inch size, the smartphone fits easily in palm and is easy to grip. The Earth 1 looks quite beautiful, but feels slightly heavy and thick. The device weighs about 162 grams, and measures 76.6x154x7.2 mm. Everything said and done, the Earth 1 is a well designed smartphone and looks quite premium.

The Earth 1 has a 5.5-inch full HD display, which has become a standard for mid-range smartphone these days. The display on the Earth 1 is quite decent but is little on warmer side. The images in the gallery appear tad warmer on the device as compared to the same image on laptop. That said, during our brief usage, the smartphone delivered quite decent outdoor and indoor visibility. The auto brightness works fluidly and is bright enough to offer good legibility even under harsh sunlight.

One of the most impressive elements of the Earth 1 is its rear dual 13-megapixel + 2-megapixel camera set up. The camera gives users a slew of customization features ranging from ISO levels, exposure, white balance, sharpness to HDR mode. We took a few photos from the Earth 1, which you can check it out below.

The camera does a near excellent job at macro shots, and is even better at depth of field. In terms of color accuracy, brightness and contrast ratio, the camera does quite a decent job in full light conditions. However, there were a few shots where white balance went out of the toss. Focus and image processing are quite snappy at auto mode, and slightly slower on HDR mode, which is the norm. Low light images are grainy, but quality is relatively better on Night Mode.

To make most of the dual-camera set up, tap on the cardboard-like icon in the camera, and shoot an image. You can tap on any part of the image to re-focus. The smartphone is capable of shooting full HD videos, and supports features such as time lapse and slow motion.

Another highlight is the 5-megapixel front facing camera with HDR and LED flash, which is quite rare for front facing cameras. The front camera delivers quite decent images in full light, but doesn’t have a beauty mode, which may disappoint selfie enthusiasts. However, there are many apps available on the Play Store that can do the trick.

It’s worth pointing out that the camera interface shows 10-megapixel as the maximum resolution along with Superfine, Fine and Normal modes.

One of the things we liked about the smartphone is the minimal UI, with limited customization over the stock Android 5.1.1. With 3GB RAM with an octa-core chipset, performance ideally shouldn’t be an issue for the Earth 1. On connecting the smartphone with a Wi-Fi network, it showed an alert for a new update, which promises optimization of some functions of system, and a few bug fixes. During our brief experience, the phone worked fluid.

The smartphone comes with 32GB of built-in storage of which around 25GB is available to users. It supports only 32GB microSD cards. The smartphone has a hybrid sim slot that houses dual-SIM (Micro + Micro). Both the SIM card slots support 4G.

The Lyf Earth 1 looks like a promising smartphone, though a few popular features such as fingerprint scanner could have made the phone more interesting. Stay tuned for our detailed review.

Source: BGR

Check out the huge difference in quality between VoLTE and GSM voice calls [video]

Reliance Jio has already rolled out 4G services for its employees, and will soon be launching its LYF branded smartphones as well. In addition to being 4G LTE capable, the highlights of these upcoming smartphones are connectivity options like VoLTE [Voice over LTE] and VoWiFi [Voice over WLAN].

VoLTE  is one of the features we are looking forward to on the soon-to-be-launched smartphones in India. VoLTE essentially lets Jio handle cellular voice calls over LTE networks, which results in HD voice clarity, faster call connectivity among others.

To give an idea of how good it really is, we have got our hands on a demo video comparing voice quality on VoLTE and GSM. As you can hear, there is a world of a difference between HD voice calls and GSM voice calls. In the first instance, the woman’s voice is barely audible over the background noise, and the quality isn’t great either. In the second instance, there is hardly any background interference, and the woman’s voice is crystal clear.

Originally LTE was only meant to carry data, and operators would revert to 2G or 3G networks to carry voice. Now operators can transmit audio calls at much higher frequencies, and in comparison to a standard call, HD voice calls also takes in more audio samples per second. In other words, more details are heard clearly during a call.

Apart from Reliance Jio’s upcoming LYF branded smartphones, RIL’s partners like LG, and Micromax too will be launching smartphones that will support VoLTE. Earlier today, Lava launched the V5, which is a Rs 11,499 smartphone with 4G LTE and VoLTE support.

Source: BGR

Lyf Earth 1, Water 1, Water 2 Price, Specifications Revealed by Reliance Jio

Reliance Jio's Lyf branded smartphones have now been listed by the company's online store ahead of an official announcement. Reliance Digital has listed the Lyf Earth 1 (seen above), Water 1, and Water 2 smartphones with pricing details. Unfortunately, there is no word on the availability of the handsets as of now.

The Lyf Earth 1, which was revealed by the company earlier this month, has been listed at Rs. 23,990. The Lyf Water 1 has been priced at Rs. 14,999 and Lyf Water 2 at Rs. 14,690. A report earlier this week claimed that Reliance Jio's much-anticipated Lyf series of smartphones would go on sale in the first week of February and will be available in at least 13 cities.


For specifications, the Lyf Water 1 (seen above) and Lyf Water 2 smartphones come with a lot of similar innards such as both feature 5-inch LCD display; 1.5GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (MSM8939); 2GB of RAM; 16GB of storage, and expandable storage support via microSD card (up to 32GB). Both the handsets sport 13-megapixel rear as well as 5-megapixel front-facing cameras. Both dual-SIM smartphones support 4G LTE bands in India. Connectivity options include GPRS/ EDGE, GPS, 3G, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Micro-USB.

There are few differences as well as Water 2 sports HD (720x1280 pixels) screen resolution while the Water 1 sports full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) screen resolution. The Lyf Water 1 runs Android 5.1.1 Lollipop out-of-the-box. The Lyf Water 2, on the other hand, runs Android 5.0.2 Lollipop. The Water 1 packs a 2600mAh battery while the Water 2 packs 2400mAh battery.




According to the Reliance Digital listing, the Water 2 (seen above) packs a 7.7mm unibody design and sport dual tone silver matte finish. The 135 gram device is also listed to include "retina scan access"; though there are no further details about the feature. The 6.8mm measuring Water 1 smartphone sports unibody design with dual glass finish. The handset sport LED flash on both front and rear panels.

Lastly, the Lyf Earth 1, as reported earlier, features a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) AMOLED display. Much like the Water 1 and Water 2 smartphones, the Earth 1 also packs octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (MSM8939) processor clocked at 1.5GHz clubbed with 3GB of RAM. The handset packs 32GB of storage and supports an additional 32GB of storage via microSD card. The Earth 1 smartphone sports dual rear cameras, with one 13-megapixel sensor and one 2-megapixel sensor. It also packs a 5-megapixel front-facing camera.

Connectivity options include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, and GPS. The Android 5.1.1 Lollipop-based Lyf Earth 1 runs on a 3500mAh battery. Weighing 162.5 grams, it measures in at 154x76.6x7.25mm.

Source: NDTV Gadgets

Reliance Jio Unveils World Class Experience Center

Reliance Jio has unveiled world class experience center for selective viewing at Reliance Corporate Park (RCP) on December 27 2015 during 4G launch for employees.

The work is still going on at the Experience Center and very soon it will be opened for viewing says senior people from the vendor community.

The Experience Center displays the entire digital eco-system be it devices, broadband network, applications and services. The world class experience center has sections on: Connected Homes, Applications and Mobile Phones but has a single focus to provide the best customer experience to Reliance Jio customers in a simple, smart and secure way.

The Connected Homes talks about Internet TV, HDTV, TV on mobile, wireline, Wi-Fi, home security, Set Top Box (STB), Mi-Fi device and others. The digital experience will completely change the way we view entertainment at home and will also help in enhancing home security.

The applications which were on display was: Video applications, concierge applications, chat applications, magazine applications, music applications, news application and payment applications.

Jio Play helps in watching HDTV anytime, anywhere on any device and will have hundreds of channels, across categories and languages. Jio Play brings best in class, personalized video on demand application that brings bollywood, regional and international movies,TV episodes, trailers and music videos in high definition format. Jio Beats is a premier digital music streaming service that gives consumers instant access to millions of songs and curated playlists – from old favorites to the latest hits. Jio Mags provides the most popular collection of magazines, in full color and with a slew of innovative features. Jio News delivers a one stop shop for all news from leading news publishing houses across multiple languages and categories.

Jio Money is the digital money and digital payments business is an ideal solution for even our smallest merchants, such as kiranas, restaurants, and taxi drivers. On display was debit card payment through mobile.

In the mobile phone section, Reliance Jio displayed around 200 models of 4G smartphones of different brands and different specifications. Reliance Jio also displayed around 80-85 models of its own LYF brands. Reliance Jio also displayed LYF 4G smartphones – Water 1, Water 2, Water 3, Earth 1 and others.

Jio will keep on adding different suite of applications at the Jio Experience Center till the last date as this will be the differentiating factor for the company and one should not forget to visit the Experience Center once it is open for public viewing.

Source: Tele Analysis

Reliance Jio 4G Network Peaked 70 Mbps During Trials: Credit Suisse

Download speed on 4G network of Reliance Jio during its beta-test phase peaked at 70 megabit per second but remained in a range of 15-30 mbps on most occasions, according to a field trial report by brokerage firm Credit Suisse.

The report said the download speed of Reliance Jio's 4G service was impressive but "it is still an empty network". It also found urban coverage of RJio network at par with incumbents but remarked rural coverage as "poor".

"We experienced peak download speed of 70 Mbps during our trials, and on most occasions in the 15-30 Mbps range, even on the move," a report by Credit Suisse Research Analysts Sunil Tirumalai and Chunky Shah said.

At the download speed of 70 mbps, a video of the size of a Bollywood movie can be downloaded in about half a minute while at 15-30 mbps the same can be downloaded in about three minutes.

The report compared commercially launched 4G service of telecom major Airtel and beta network of Reliance Jio and found "Airtel 4G giving 10-20 Mbps, often slower than Jio, and 3G network speeds of sub 2Mbps (peak 7 Mbps)".

Analysts found urban coverage of RJio network at par with incumbents but remarked rural coverage as "poor".

During trials analysts experienced call drop-free RJio network in Mumbai but lost signal 3-4 times when they entered on village roads.

Analysts said that they experienced seamless phone call experience between RJio and network of other telecom operators.

"Overall, our take away is that the Rjio network is turning out to be as strong a threat to incumbents as we had feared. Next focus would be on pricing and marketing execution," the report said.

Reliance Jio is expected to launch 4G services this month.

Credit Suisse analysts said that the speeds will fall once a commercial launch happens and more users get on to the network but globally 4G has delivered better speed than 3G services.

The company has matched up with incumbents on coverage in urban area but there is not much rural focus.

"Until the rural network is fixed, RJio could enter into roaming agreements with other operators. We suspect Jio would use sub-1GHz spectrum for rural coverage," the report said.

Commenting on handset availability for RJio's 4G service, the report said that ZTE is making RJio's LYF branded 4G handset and some handsets of Samsung, LG, Lenovo and ZTE also supported VoLTE calls.

Source: NDTV

Reliance Jio set to replicate the success of China Mobile

Reliance Jio (RJio ), the 4G venture of Mukesh Ambani' s Reliance Industries, looks to copy the success of China Mobile as the countdown begins for the launch of the service at the end of this financial year. "We are now building another Reliance in the consumer space. Data will be the new oil for RIL ," says an executive close to Ambani.

At the end of 2014, China Mobile's customer base reached 807 million, representing a growth of 5.1 per cent from the previous year, of which 4G customers accounted for 90 million. Its voice services revenue went down by 13.1 per cent, while data services revenue shot up by 22.3 per cent. In addition, the revenue from mobile data traffic went up by 42.9 per cent. RJio is eyeing such growth in India.

"You need to have roads, cars and destinations for reaching out to people. Similarly, in the telecom space, road means infrastructure, cars are devices and the destinations are common - communication. We have the best technology and advanced infrastructure. Jio is like a mall. In that ecosystem, partners will come together and build solutions in healthcare, education, money, entertainment and cloud," says the RIL executive.

Romal Shetty, Partner and Head, Telecom Services at KPMG in India, says that for China Mobile, LTE deployment was more an upgrade of existing 3G networks than deployment of new network technology. "One of the key reasons was that China Mobile was operating its 3G networks on Time Domain Duplexing (TDD) schemes. The LTE deployments were also TD-LTE. The main rivals of China Mobile (China Unicom and China Telecom) had the challenge of deploying TD-LTE networks while their 3G networks were predominantly Frequency Domain Duplexing (FDD) based. This advantage enabled China Mobile to provide extensive LTE coverage in shorter time frames as opposed to the competition."

Rahul Agarwal, Senior Consultant, Information & Communication Technologies Practice at Frost & Sullivan says that China Mobile's success can be attributed to the fact that it has been able to provide an enhanced user experience to its subscribers on the TD-LTE network. "Speed achieved by TD-LTE is much higher than what China Mobile achieved on its TD-SCDMA network and this has been critical for engineering the turnaround. China Mobile has experienced a surge in its TD-LTE subscriber base and looks good to continue doing well," he says.

RJio bought the TD-LTE spectrum in 2010 and will be happy to replicate the success of China Mobile in India, says Agarwal. "The initial concerns are that, as compared to Frequency Division Long Term Evolution (FD-LTE), the device ecosystem for TD-LTE is not very developed and that only a small fraction of LTE devices launched by vendors globally support this technology (TD-LTE), which may no longer be relevant. Also RJio intends to launch cheap devices to ensure that this concern is taken care of," he adds.

In 2014, China Mobile promoted the transformation from voice-centric to data-centric operations. The average handset data traffic per 4G user in a month reached 780 MB. The 4G network has gradually become the major data carrying network in China. For the network, the group cumulatively deployed 720,000 4G base stations, which cover a population of more than one billion, leading to continuous nationwide coverage in almost all cities and counties as well as data hotspot coverage in developed rural towns and villages. RJio will put up 75,000 towers during the time of launch to cover around the same population, in addition to the 2,50,000 route km of optical fibre that it has laid. It plans to double the optical fibre footprint in next three years to cover its total licensed area.

China Mobile launched a series of 4G featured services including lossless music, high definition videos and high-speed games, and found out new business models such as data traffic sharing and corporate-sponsored data traffic. In addition to the networks, Ambani has drawn up a strategy for content and applications, also unlike other players. Before the end of the year, the fashion and lifestyle formats of Reliance Retail will roll out its e-commerce initiative in sync with Jio's business. Reliance's e-commerce initiative in grocery, reliancefreshdirect.com, would be scaled up to serve new markets. 'Jio Chat' will integrate chat, voice, video calling, conferencing, file sharing and photo sharing.

Another, 'Jio Drive' will bring cloud capabilities to smart phones. Using this application, anyone can store, sync and share any content between devices. Jio team buys the rights of most of the new movies to instantly available on their mobile platform. 'Jio Play', 'Jio Beats' and 'Jio Mags' are the other planned offerings. Jio has operationalised nearly half a million square feet of its own next-generation cloud data centres. It plans to have an end-to-end initial capacity to serve in excess of 100 million wireless broadband and 20 million Fibre-to-the-Home customers.

"Jio's capacity created is more than the 4G network capacity in the US. We are trying to change the life of the individual," says the RIL executive. Unlike 2G, the new telecom war will not be about network, but also about devices and content. Airtel has tied up with vendors such as Xiaomi and Lenovo for low-end devices, and Apple and Micromax for high-end devices. It has deals signed with music and movie content providers. RJio is in talks with 28 mobile and tablet manufacturers, including Apple, Samsung and Micromax. It may also sell self-branded compatible devices.

Source: Business Today

Reliance’s Jio Chat now available in nine countries

Jio Chat, the instant messaging app from Jio is now available across nine countries, including India. Customers in Canada, USA, UK, UAE, South Africa, Singapore, Australia and China can now download Jio Chat and chat with friends and family across these countries. It is available for Android and iOS devices. This app competes with popular apps such as WhatsApp, Line, WeChat and Hike in India.

In terms of features, the app supports messaging, voice calling, video chat, conferencing and audio notes. It also adds in doodles, stickers and emoticons. The app will also have location sharing along with status sharing features. The app will work over mobile data as well as Wi-Fi networks.

Contacts will be synced upon downloading the app and free SMS invites can be sent to all. Jio Chat also offers chat channels which allows users to stay updated about their favorite celebrities, brands or even news as well. Users will also find special promotions in this section. The app will also offer an offline chat option, which can be used to store typed messages after which they can be sent once the user comes online.

Sharing more details, a spokesperson of Jio Chat said, “We are excited to launch our services in eight new countries as it will help in boosting our international presence and will also let our customers based in India connect seamlessly with their loved ones abroad.”

Source: First Post

Reliance Jio begins trial, employees get services’ free run

Ahead of the launch of its mobile services, Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIO) on Tuesday commenced the beta services of its 4G mobile services. With this the company employees will now use Jio mobile services during a trial period of two months.

According to industry sources, after successfully completing the trial run, RJIO is likely to roll out its 4G mobile services in selected circles. During the trial period RIL employees would get free unlimited data on purchase of handset, which is priced between Rs 9,000 and Rs 32,000.

In a letter written to its employees last week, the company said that the “Jio is set to enable everyone in India to live a Digital Life. As we make Jio ready for India and work towards the commercial launch, there is a special role for each one of us. We invite you today to start using Jio, and with your feedback (on quality of network) together we will ensure that Jio is ready for India. This is how we will connect the dots together with you…”.

The RIL employees can chose from a variety of new 4G VoLTE smartphones that come with the latest features such as crystal clear voice and video calling, at a special employee price, according to the letter addressed to RIL employees.

These handsets will also be made available at Digital Express stores from next week. It would also have a coupon worth Rs 13,200.

“A Jio prepaid SIM is at no cost loaded with voice, SMS, high-speed data, public Wi-Fi, and full access to Jio apps all together worth above Rs 13,800, plus additional benefits such as a power bank, extended warranty, insurance and Reliance Digital vouchers,” the letter stated.

Employees can also purchase a personal Wi-Fi device, a mobile hotspot that boosts all Wi-Fi enabled devices to 4G speeds. This will come with a Jio prepaid SIM and services such as 75 GB of data, public Wi-Fi, and full access to Jio’s apps worth above Rs 12,000.

Jio mobile users will even be able to recharge at no cost during the trial period in case they run out of voice, SMS or data.

Source: Financial Express