Ecosystem for 4G is moving quite well: Sandip Das, former MD Reliance Jio Infocomm

The ecosystem for 4G is moving quite well with availability of devices at attractive prices and operators rolling out infrastructure and soon there will be national coverage for 4G, Sandip Das, former managing director of Reliance Jio Infocomm said today.

Das said there will be rise in data consumption once 4G networks come up and phones are also available.

"The 4G infrastructure is being rolled out by all operators right now in the country... some networks are up and some are going to come up shortly and soon there will be national coverage for 4G," Das said here.

He added the ecosystem for 4G devices is also moving in the right direction with manufacturers coming out with wide range of handsets at attractive prices.

"I think the second most important thing is availability of 4G phone and I think the ecosystem is moving quite well and a lot of manufacturers are now ready with a wide range of 4G phones that they are planning to launch at attractive price points," he said.

Das said once the networks come up and phones are also available, the data consumption will rise because people will experience very high quality data as well as speed.

In India, Bharti Airtel and Aircel are offering 4G services in some circles currently. Reliance Jio Infocomm, which holds pan-India 4G spectrum, plans to launch its services in 2015 in a phased manner.

Other operators like Vodafone and Idea Cellular have also bought spectrum in 1800 Mhz band, in February auction last year, which will be used for rolling out 4G services in coming years.

Source: ET

Digital India: Reliance Jio to roll out wi-fi network in central Delhi by June

North Delhi Municipal Corporation has roped in telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm to roll out Wi-Fi network in central Delhi by June this year, as per sources. "NDMC has asked Reliance Jio to install Wi-Fi network in area that falls under its jurisdiction. RJio has been asked to complete the rollout by June," an official source told PTI.

Government has set December 2015 deadline to cover cities and towns with population of over 10 lakhs as well as tourist destinations with Wi-Fi services as part of the Prime Minister's pet project 'Digital India'. The top 25 cities have to achieve this target by June 2015.

North Delhi Municipal Corporation has roped in telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm to roll out Wi-Fi network in central Delhi by June this year, as per sources. "NDMC has asked Reliance Jio to install Wi-Fi network in area that falls under its jurisdiction. RJio has been asked to complete the rollout by June," an official source told PTI.

Government has set December 2015 deadline to cover cities and towns with population of over 10 lakhs as well as tourist destinations with Wi-Fi services as part of the Prime Minister's pet project 'Digital India'. The top 25 cities have to achieve this target by June 2015.

Source: First Post

Reliance launches Jionet brand Wi-Fi service from Kolkata

After witnessing the launch of the country's first mobile service in 1995, Kolkata is all set to become the country's first digital metro city with Reliance Jio unveiling its Wireless Broadband Access-based Wi-Fi services here today.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata today launched the 'Jionet' brand Wi-Fi service from Park Street. Adjoining areas like Loudon Street and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road were also likely to be covered in the first phase of the soft launch.

The first mobile phone service in the country was launched when Modi Telstra patched through a call in 1995 between then chief Minister Jyoti Basu in Kolkata and then Union Telecom Minister Sukh Ram in Delhi.

"All my Wi-Fi friends, I am tweeting using #WiFiKolkata. So proud to be first Wi-Fi Metro city in India. Congratulations to us all," Banerjee unveiled the service with this tweet.

The service is available for public from 6 PM and initially would be offered free, subject to fair usage, a company release said.

Earlier, company officials had said the Wi-Fi service would turn to be a paid service only after a formal commercial launch was done and that would happen once the entire city coverage was complete.

"We have started today, rest of the country will follow. Kolkata will become a knowledge hub for the world," Banerjee said.

Source: ET

Centre ready to use satellites, drones to connect to rural India: Ravi Shankar Prasad

The Centre is ready to use satellites, balloons or drones to fast-forward digital connectivity in India's rural and remote areas, telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said.

"We are open to tweaking the programme's technology if industry can come up with concrete suggestions and our technical team can supplement it," Prasad said at the Digital India summit organised by the Times Television Network.

The massive Rs 20,100-crore national optic fibre network initiative, approved in 2011, seeks to provide Internet services at a speed of 100 megabit per second (mbps) across 2.5-lakh gram panchayats.

The programme has been marred by delays due to right of way (RoW) clearances at the state and district levels, even as the Narendra Modi-led NDA government has advanced the deadline to December 2016 from March 2017.

In a response to industry's suggestion, Prasad said, "Digging will be done to lay cables and it can be supplemented by satellite or balloon or drones wherever possible. I am quite open and can consider it."

The pan-India broadband network is imperative for Modi's ambitious Digital India initiative with an initial outlay of Rs 1.13-lakh crore for inclusive growth led by a plethora of m-governance services including health, education and entertainment that has a deadline of 2018. Times Internet chief executive Satyan Gajwani said the Digital India initiative with strong goals holds huge scope and opportunity for the country.

"As we move along, there should be no differentiation in the name of preferential access and it's consumers who have right to choose services."

"Digital India needs to bridge digital divide, and with the focus on rural India, the government is bringing in broadband," Prasad said. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg met Prasad last year and proposed a pilot project to bridge digital divide with alternate technology such as drones and satellite communications. Then, in December, software giant Microsoft's global chief executive Satya Nadella offered a pilot project for its 'White-Fi' technology to provide Internet connectivity in remote villages of the country.

Google has also offered its hot air balloons, under project Loon, for last-mile broadband connectivity.

Source: ET

S-G Ranjit Kumar rejects CAG’s observations, says no collusion between RIL & Infotel in 2010 auctions

India's second-highest law officer has rejected observations by the national auditor that the telecom department, through a series of decisions, conferred undue favours upon Reliance Jio that caused a loss of Rs 22,842 crore to the exchequer.

Solicitor-General Ranjit Kumar has also disagreed with claims by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) that Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) — of which Reliance Jio is a subsidiary — colluded with Infotel Broadband Services (IBSPL), the sole winner of pan-India airwaves in the 2300 MHz band (used for 4G services), in spectrum auctions carried out in 2010. Soon after the 2010 sale ended, RIL bought 95% in Infotel and later renamed it Jio.

CAG had alleged in a draft report that Infotel was acting as a front for RIL.

The national auditor had said in its report that the telecom department (DoT) favoured Jio by allowing it to convert its internet service permit (ISP) into a unified licence (UL) at Rs 1,658 crore.

ISP allowed the company to offer wireless broadband services (4G) while UL was needed for voice services. This was the same price paid by telcos in 2001 when the sector was still in its infancy. The price has been struck down by the Supreme Court in its 2012 order. The permission to offer voice services, plus other favours, had caused a loss of Rs 22,842 crore, as per CAG. The CAG's analysis of the DoT's actions figures in a draft report on the 2010 auction of spectrum for broadband wireless access (BWA). This (CAG's view) appears to be a very narrow perspective of the matter," Kumar has said in a 14-page opinion to the telecom department. He added that the introduction of the unified licence (UL) and allowing ISP's to migrate to a UL and offer voice was in line with existing telecom policy which took into account the interests of industry, consumers and the country.

Kumar's opinion was sought by the DoT while formulating the department's responses to the CAG's analysis. The CAG's draft report is also the basis for a public interest litigation filed by NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), in the Supreme Court, which alleged wrongdoing by the DoT in allowing Jio to offer voice telephony. CPIL's case is being argued by activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who is associated with Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Kumar said that the DoT may submit his opinion in the Supreme Court while replying to the petition filed by the NGO.

Reliance Jio was the first company to utilise the government's new policy, NTP 2012, which permitted an existing ISP to migrate to a UL, or a permit to provide all services including voice telephony, by paying Rs 1,658 crore.

The S-G has argued that in fact there was a strong case for not even charging the Rs 1,658 crore, "since there was no allotment of any additional spectrum by the government to such licensees consequent to their migration." Moreover, the licensees continued to use the airwaves for which market price was already paid by them in 2010.He further said that charging an entry fee more thanRs 1,658 crore, or charging additional spectrum usage charge "would be arbitrary, unfair", and "may not be sustainable".Under the previous national telecom policy, prior to the one formulated in 2012, Rs 1,658 crore was the entry fee paid by a prospective telecom operator for a pan-India permit that came with bundled spectrum of 4.4 Mhz. The fee was based on a valuation of the bundled spectrum arrived at in 2001.

INFOTEL ACQUISITION LEGAL: S-G

Responding to CAG's analysis of the acquisition of Infotel Broadband -- owned by Mahendra Nahata -- by RIL, the S-G has opined that auction rules indicated that a change in shareholding was permissible immediately after the auction, so long as it didn't affect the eligibility of the bidder.

Also, "raising finance, whether through bank loans or through private equity, is part of normal business process and does not render the borrower company a dummy of the lender or investor," Kumar said. He further added that since RIL was an "insider" as far as Infotel was concerned, and sharing information with the "insider" was not prohibited under rules, and a transaction with an insider cannot be termed collusive. The S-G added that unless there was material to show that withdrawal of bids made by Vodafone India, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices and Idea Cellular was on account of leak of any information by IBSPL or RIL to the bidders, collusion or bid rigging cannot be alleged. Thus, there was no case for the telecom department to investigate leak of confidential information by IBSPL/RIL to other bidders. Further, the S-G has said that the fact that Infotel paid for the spectrum out of equity contributed by RIL, which was inducted as a shareholder after conclusion of the auction, does not necessarily indicate collusion with other bidders during the auction process.

"No occasion therefore arose for the DoT to enquire into transaction between IBSOPL and RIL unless there was complaint material with DoT to indicate their collusion or release of confidential information." At most, Infotel should have intimated DoT about bringing in RIL as a shareholder, Kumar said.

He, however, said that the manner in which authorised capital was increased by Infotel (which was done by serving only one day's notice for convening an extraordinary general meeting), and the manner in which the shares were issued to a publiclylisted company, RIL, before permission for the increase in authorised capital was sought from the registrar of companies, are regulatory matters and didn't fall within the jurisdiction of DoT.

Source: ET

Reliance Jio sees over 3GB monthly data usage per user in Gujarat under pilot test

In what could indicate growing high speed data appetite among Internet users in Gujarat, Reliance Jio Infocomm's pilot test in the state has seen over 200,000 users in last 8-9 months.

What's more, according to sources privy to the development, average daily high speed Internet data usage has been clocked at over 100 MB per user. The daily usage adds up to monthly data usage of roughly over 3 GB per user from Wi-Fi hotspots created by the company in major cities of Gujarat. An emailed query to the company remained unanswered.

Reliance Jio Infocomm, Mukesh Ambani's ambitious telecom venture, has been conducting ground tests by offering free Wi-Fi services at several hotspots in major cities of Gujarat like Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Vadodara and Surat.

The company has been conducting ground tests since last 8-9 months for acceptability of high speed Internet in the state through dedicated Wi-Fi hotspots.

Moreover, the company has also been offering free Wi-Fi at several major events in the state like 13th edition of Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD), Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2015 and the ongoing National E-governance Summit in Gandhinagar.

Last year, the company had launched trial runs of high-speed data services by setting up eight Wi-Fi hot spots in Ahmedabad. The trial runs in March 2014 were launched by the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi under the state government's e-nagar project.

The maximum downloading speed in 3G is up to 4-5 mbps, while the average downloading speed at these Wi-Fi spots is much above 20 mbps.

Source: B.S

4G Networks Rise 36 Percent in 2014; 1800MHz Band Most Popular: Report

The number of operators offering 4G mobile services rose by 36 percent to 360 globally in 2014 and nearly half of these used spectrum in 1800MHz band to provide the super-fast services, says a report.
The report by Global Mobile Suppliers Association has said about 44 percent of these operators used spectrum in 1800MHz band for rolling out 4G services.

Interestingly, in India, at present, the spectrum in 1800MHz band is primarily used for 2G mobile services. Also, the frequencies in the band are available at lower prices than the spectrum in 2300MHz which is largely used by Indian telcos to roll out the fourth-generation services.

The report said that as many as 360 operators have deployed 4G network across 124 countries by the end of 2014 as against 264 operators in 2013. Domestic players like Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone and Reliance Jio Infocomm have plans to use 1800MHz spectrum band for 4G services.

The ecosystem from 4G services is gradually developing.

The growth in 4G network deployment will bring down cost of mobile devices for consumers as well as cost of equipment used by telecom operators for building networks. Due to late development of 4G network equipment and consumer devices, Indian telecom operators, which hold 4G spectrum in 2300MHz band, have been seeking more time to roll out super-fast mobile services.

Airtel and Aircel have launched 4G services in this band at select places while another player, Reliance Jio, which holds pan-India 4G spectrum, is yet to launch services. The developing technology has now made it possible to offer high speed 4G services in bands other than 2300MHz.

The report said that 91 operators launched 4G services in 2600MHz band globally. The 2300MHz band spectrum has seen about 20 launches of commercial 4G network globally.

In India, state-run BSNL was allocated spectrum in 2600MHz across 20 services area. The company surrendered its 2600MHz band spectrum across 14 service areas but retained it in six service areas.

TeliaSonera was the first operator to launch 4G network in Norway and Sweden on December 14, 2009. The report said that 611 operators are investing in 4G networks across 174 countries.

Source: NDTV