Reliance to Offer Messaging Service Jio Messenger

Reliance Jio, which is expected to launch its 4G services somewhere in 2015, is also planning to offer its own messaging service. The messaging service will be called Jio Messenger and would work on the same lines as WhatsApp or other IP based messaging service like Hike.

“The app has been developed in-house and currently being tested vigorously among a closed user group,” a source close to the development informed.

The company is planning to launch the Jio Messenger along with its 4G services launch.

“Both the 4G as well as Jio Messenger are being planned for a simultaneous launch,” the source added.

The messenger app has been developed for multiple platforms and will be made available in different app stores like Android Play store or Apple iTunes.

“As of now, I believe, the Jio Messenger has been developed for android and iOS as we have got the two versions for testing,” said another source who demonstrated the messenger app to TeleAnalysis.

The app is being tested within the Reliance Jio employees.

The Jio Messenger incorporates almost all the features of some of the existing messenger services like WhatsApp, Hike or Line. With the app an user can send text messages, video and audio messages besides being able to make VoIP calls. Besides this, Reliance Jio is testing the integration of social media on to this application. By making this, an user while sending a text message to a contact, can upload the same to his Facebook wall or his Twitter account, if he or she wishes to.

The Jio Messenger will be pre-installed in the devices that Reliance Jio would be offering as a bundled service when it launches its 4G services. For other mobile devices which are not on contract with Jio, users can download the app from the respective app stores.

Reliance Jio is the only operator to have pan-India license to offer 4G services in all 22 telecom circles in the country. As it is getting ready to offer the high-speed  mobile services, it does not want to leave any telecom service out of its service offerings. Besides wireless broadband, the company is planning to launch fixed broadband, WiFi and now, it also wants to enter into OTT services like Jio Messenger.

Source: http://www.teleanalysis.com/

Trai recommendations on spectrum pricing likely by end of October

Telecom regulator Trai is likely to come out with recommendations on spectrum pricing for the next round of auction by the end of next month.

"The recommendations are likely to come by the end of October," a source in Trai said.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) in August had started the consultation process for the next round of auctions for spectrum held by mobile operators - Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and RCom - as some of their licences are set to expire in 2015-16.

Trai will recommend the reserve price of spectrum to be auctioned across 18 out of the 22-telecom service areas across the country for 900 Mhz and 1800 Mhz bands, used for providing mobile services based on GSM technology standard.

The Authority has recently conducted an open house discussion with industry players in order to get their views on reserve price, quantum of spectrum and other issues related to auction.

In December 2015, 4 licences of Bharti Airtel, 7 each of Idea Cellular, Reliance Telecom and Vodafone will complete their 20-year term and would require renewal.

The companies can renew their licences by paying a fixed fee but for continuing mobile and other wireless services they will need to buy spectrum afresh through auction at market determined rates. By April 2016, two more permits of Bharti and Idea will come up for renewal.

As per Trai, 184 Mhz of spectrum in 900 MHz band and 104 MHz in 1800 Mhz band can be put up for the auction.

The government, in its Budget Estimates for the current financial year, 2014-15, has projected minimum revenue of Rs 9,355 crore from auction of 800 Mhz as well as the 900 Mhz and 1800 Mhz bands.

Source: ET

Private telcos can play big role in Digital India retail rollout: Ravi Shankar Prasad

The telecom regulator has rued India's dismal broadband penetration and questioned the telecom department's decision to only involve state-owned telecom companies to implement the Rs 21,000 crore national optic fibre network (NOFN) project that is already running three years behind schedule.

In a consultation paper titled 'Delivering Broadband Quickly', unveiled Wednesday, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has also invited industry feedback on a relevant "timeframe for auctioning spectrum in the 700 MHz band," to offer the most efficient airwaves to telcos for boosting India's poor broadband penetration.

It has also invited suggestions on awarding engineering, procurement & construction (EPC) contracts to private telecom operators through the international competitive bidding route to speed up NOFN, which will be the core broadband backbone for delivering high-speed internet and government services to the common man under the Centre's Rs 1.13 lakh-crore Digital India drive.

"Are PSUs ideal choices for implementing the NOFN project, and is it not possible to piggyback on existing private sector access networks to minimize costs in reaching remote rural locations,?" asked Trai in its consultation paper.

The telecom department has mandated state-run Bharat Broadband Networks to implement the NOFN venture as the principal bandwidth supplier, and asked state-run firms Bharat Sanchar Nigam, Power Grid Corp and RailTel to handle the countrywide cable laying, trenching and ducting work.

In an interview to ET in August, Trai Chairman Rahul Khullar had doubted if the government will be able to meet the 2019 timeline to implement the Digital India initiative, given the delays in the NOFN project, and had called upon the centre to evaluate involving private sector telecom players to speed it up.

The telecom regulator's scathing criticism of India's broadband act also come barely 24 hours after telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad deplored the tardy progress of the NOFN project, which he said was contributing to "India's broadband deficit".

To suggestions in a late August ET interview that the private sector may be roped in for the NOFN project to speed it up, Prasad had said the government will continue to implement it through state-run public sector units.

Apart from inviting suggestions on reducing broadband infrastructure development costs, Trai has also sought views on involving the private sector to reduce high-speed internet delivery costs. It has also sought feedback on the quantum of spectrum required to achieve national broadband penetration targets, identifying relevant frequency bands and ways to encourage government agencies to surrender their idle spectrum.

It has also elicited views on potential policy changes needed to ramp up broadband penetration by leveraging India's significant cable TV network. In this case, Trai's poser echoes DoT's recent plans to revisit a proposal of India's broadband policy of 2004, which had suggested using the country's cable TV infrastructure as a franchisee network of internet service providers for delivering broadband.

The DoT is known to be mulling a relook at existing internet service provider (ISP) licence conditions and a separate ISP permit only for cable TV broadband, so that existing cable TV infrastructure can be leveraged efficiently.

The Trai consultation paper also wonders why "wifi hotspots" haven't seen decent traction in all these years, and elicits views on ways to evolve a robust ecosystem for fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks.

Issues raised by Trai are likely to mirror some of the highlights of the new BJP-led government's broadband policy that likens broadband connectivity to a fundamental right like education and health. The new broadband policy is likely to also explore ways to attract large investment from potential developers of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks.

The broadband focus also stems from India's modest broadband subscriber base of 70.81 milllion as on July 2014, comprising 15.04 million wireline broadband customers and 55.77 million mobile broadband users, as per Trai data. This pales in comparison with the nearly 800 million mobile phone subscribers as on July end.

While the new policy will not tinker with NTP 2012 broadband penetration target of 175 million customers by 2015, it has advanced the 2020 target date for 600 million broadband customers by a year to 2019, according to a recent DoT note seen by ET.

Source: ET

Reliance Industries to raise $800 million from Korea Exim to fund Reliance Jio

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL),is raising $800 million from Korea Exim (K-Exim) in order to finance purchase of telecom equipment from Korean vendors such as Samsung by Reliance Jio (RJio), the telecom arm of the retail to petroleum giant, indicating that the much awaited rollout of telecom services by India's largest private company is gathering pace. The company may launch services in the first quarter of 2015, according to analysts.

This will be the first international financing for RJio, after a $1.5 billion overseas borrowing (ECB) raised in 2010 for spectrum payments. RIL is expected to soon refinance that funding as well. "The new tenor will be for 5.25 years for $1 billion and 6.5 years for $500 million. These will be at spreads lower than the previous loan."

K-Exim will be funding 60% of the amount while standing guarantees for the remaining amount. A number of global banks — three each from Japan and Korea along with ANZ and HSBC, would bankroll the rest. The agreements are expected to be signed within the next 2 days, according to people directly involved in the matter.

Reliance spokesperson was not available for comment.

From 2012 till now, RIL, responsible for about 14% of India's exports, has raised over $11 billion from overseas via bonds, ECBs as well as funding from exim banks. Most of funding till now is to finance the company's capex for a massive expansion of its petrochemicals capacity.

Exim bank are quasi- government organisations that offer cheaper credit (relative to commercial banks) to support exports from its country or region. RIL - the country's largest overseas borrower -- is also the most active Indian corporation in tapping the ECA financing route that offer cheaper credit for a longer tenure. For example, the latest financing is expected to be 12 years, said the sources mentioned above.

ECAs from the US, Korea, France and the UK, have extended ECA-backed funding to RIL during 2013 on the back of its strong balance sheet and credit ratings, the latter being better than India's sovereign ratings.

As a result, Reliance has been to lock in capital commitments for tenors as long as 14 years and at extremely low costs — on average a fixed-rate ECA from the US government carries an interest rate of 3.5% versus 5% to 5.5% for a 10-year dollar-denominated bond.

Reliance has been working towards a 2015 launch for its 4G telecom service and may invest as much as .`70,000 crore towards this end. As per a recent calculation by Moody's, RIL is expected to pump in nearly 42% of that amount over the next two years. The company has said that Jio will initially cover about 5,000 towns and cities, covering over 90% of urban India, as well as over 215,000 villages in India. The target is to expand this to over 600,000 villages.

Reliance Jio acquired telecom spectrum four years ago but has since waited for clarity in telecom policy and for technology to evolve. But earlier this month, analysts from investment bank Credit Suisse said that as per their intelligence, the rollout has been gathering momentum and a March 2015 launch could be expected.

"RJio has completed installation of 32,000 LTE base stations nationwide. The pace of rollout, importantly, has picked up sharply to 6,500-7,000 per month (vs 3,000 per month in May 2014). It seems the company and the rollout partners are maturing in the rollout process (note this is the first major equipment contract for Samsung in India)," wrote analysts Sunil Tirumalai and Chunky Shah in a September 16 note to clients.

In addition to the original base station contract (for 60,000 LTE units for the initial launch network), a second contract for an additional 50,000-70,000 base stations has also been awarded to Samsung. "So we see firm visibility of the network size crossing 100,000 base stations. Since many of these sites will also run on 1800MHz FDD LTE (we expect this to be the base voice network), the network would be quite comparable to other operator's network in terms of reach, in our view," they added.

These base stations are believed to allow multiple technologies to work across multiple bands of spectrum. For Jio the relevant technologies are FDD LTE (frequency division duplexing) and TDD LTE (time-division duplexing), the two rival fourth generation (4G) wireless telephony technologies. The telecom department has also recently issued Reliance spectrum in the 1800 MHz band that it won in the February auctions in 14 circles. Most industry observers feel Jio will initially offer basic voice services on the 1800MHz spectrum, using FDD VoLTE (Voice over LTE).

Source: ET

Govt to spend around Rs 33,000 cr on broadband in 3 years: Garg

Government plans to spend around Rs. 33,000 crore over next 3 years on broadband projects, a top official said here on Tuesday.

“Government will be spending approximately Rs. 33,000 crore in coming three years in these (National Optical Fibre Network, Government Users Network, etc.) programme,” Telecom Secretary Rakesh Garg said at an Assocham event.

While government has already approved Rs. 21,000 crore for NOFN which aims to connect all 2.5 lakh village panchayat by March 2017, funds for GUN that will be used to deliver broadband service are yet to be approved by the Cabinet.

As per initial estimates, the capital expenditure for GUN is estimated to around Rs. 4,942 crore and operational expense (opex) of Rs. 2,472 crore per annum will be required.

The estimates have been sent to Expenditure Finance Committee for clearance after which it will be placed before the Cabinet for final nod.

Garg said the survey of about 2 lakh village panchayats has been completed and the work will be expedited as the rainy season is now over.

“We believe that by end of this financial, we will be completing more than 50,000 village panchayats,” Garg said.

Source: HBL

Reliance Jio to use Indus' towers to roll out services

Reliance Jio Infocomm has signed a deal with Indus Towers to share the latter's 1,13,490 towers as the Mukesh Ambani-led telecom company prepares to roll out high speed internet services on LTE next year.

In a joint statement on September 22, Reliance Jio said it had signed a master services agreement with the world's largest telecom tower provider that will allow Jio to use all of Indus' towers in 15 circles at prevailing market rates. The companies did not share the duration and the value of the deal. "We are continuing our effort to create a new age network which will provide innovative and empowering digital solutions to every Indian through our high speed 4G services," Reliance Jio's MD Sanjay Mashruwala said.

"The agreement will help in avoiding duplication of infrastructure and preserving the environment, while ensuring "seamless services to Jio customers through Indus' tower infrastructure", the statement added. Indus Towers is a threeway joint venture between India's No. 1 carrier Bharti Airtel, No. 2 Vodafone India and No. 3 Idea Cellular where the first two own 42% each.

"Our footprint in 15 circles in India, coupled with high network uptime levels, cost-effective solutions, faster access to market and lower operational costs will provide Jio a robust and seamless telecom infrastructure," BS Shantharaju, CEO at Indus Towers, said. The agreement will also bring cost benefits to Jio in the form of lower rentals and energy costs, he added.

Reliance Jiois gearing up to start offering high-speed, broadband or 4G services, taking on rivals, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India, amid increasing data usage by the country's mobile phone subscribers.

The company owns pan-India airwaves in the 2300 MHz band since May 2010, but it is yet to roll out services. It must do so by May 2015 as per the licence obligation at the time of sale. It also bought airwaves in the 1800 MHz band in a government auction in February. On both bands, it plans to launch fourth-generation data services, along with second-generation voice service on the 1800 MHz band.

With the latest tie-up with Indus Towers, Reliance Jio will have access to over 288,000 towers countrywide. It has already tied up with major infrastructure providers and telecom companies that own towers since April 2013, including Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications, Viom Networks and Bharti Infratel, a unit of Bharti Airtel.

Jio has also partnered with Bharti Airtel to share infrastructure created by both parties. It also shares RCom's inter-city and intra-city optic fiber apart from 45,000 towers

Source: ET

Telecom industry relieved over court ruling on mobile towers

The latest verdict of the Gujarat High Court that base stations for wireless data and mobile communications pose no threat to health if prescribed norms are followed will have far-reaching impact on erasing people's fears, say industry experts.

The 25-page order of a Gujarat High Court bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J.B. Pardiwala said authorities concerned must also educate people that they had no reason to fear for their health due to radio frequency emissions from these base stations in their vicinity.

The order came in the light of a civil appeal by some residents of an Ahmedabad neighbourhood wanting a direction to the authorities to disallow Reliance Jio, which is seeking to extend pan-India 4G services, from using a mobile base station in their neighbourhood.

Reacting to the verdict, K.S. Parthasarathy, former secretary in the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, said the confusion has been created by some companies that are indulging in false propaganda "that mobile tower radiation is bad".

"In the majority of the cases, the radiation levels are within specified limits. It is so low it hardly has an impact. In India, the specified limit is one-tenth the global norms - 90 percent of the countries follow the international limit," Parthasarathy told IANS.

He said some mischief-mongers were showing morphed and scary pictures of the ill-effects of mobile tower emissions. That's why the court verdict was a step in the right direction.

"This is a good decision," he said on the court wanting the authorities to propagate the correct scenario through various media.

The petitioners feared that since the base station in question was just outside the garden of their residential premises, they would be exposed to constant radiation, which could cause severe health hazards - a premise that was dismissed by the court.

The central government, another respondent, told the court that the fear was baseless. Similar suits were filed in the past and the court decisions have also been similar - but for cases where the norms were flouted.

The government said this was also the conclusion of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which was communicated through Fact Sheet No. 304 of May 2006 on electromagnetic fields and public health.

The court ruled: "Considering the very low exposure levels and the research-results collected to date, there is no convincing scientific evidence that weak RF signals from base stations and wireless networks cause adverse health effects."

In any case, the court said, there are now strict regulations for companies to follow.

"We are gratified that the Gujarat High Court has recognized the safety measures of the Government of India. It is one of the best in the world. Citizens can feel safe," said Rajan S. Mathews, director general of the Cellular Operators' Association of India.

"The court has also recognized the need for the authorities to do more to make the public aware of safety measures and help remove their fears. Our association is actively working on this initiative," Mathews told IANS.

"We believe addressing these concerns will be key to meeting the government's objective of broadband-on-demand for all citizens of India."

Source: BS