Shah Rukh, Rahman to sing at RJio’s 4G services launch

Reliance Jio is expected to disrupt the telecom sector with a slew of services including video streaming, music streaming, money payments and video calling.

RJio is in a position to undertake a small-scale launch of its 4G services in select areas, particularly in Mumbai, by end-December, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a note dated December 15.

The continued delay launching service has given incumbent operators including Bharti Airtel adequate time to prepare for Reliance Jio’s entry into the market.

After waiting with bated breath for the last few months, it seems that Reliance employees are finally getting the invite from Mukesh Ambani and Nita Ambani to attend the Reliance Jio launch on December 27, incidentally a day before Reliance industry founder Mr Dhirubhai Ambani’s birthday. Speculations of the December launch have been rife since May of this year!

The event to launch Jio’s 4G technology-based services will be hosted by actor Shah Rukh Khan and will also see a performance by music director A.R. Rahman. The event will be telecasted across 1000 locations for live webcast. It is expected that the company will start a price war in the data space.

Jio launch has been one of the most talked about event in telecom circles in India. It is widely expected to function as a pipeline of digital content along with data and voice offerings. The company plans to introduce a range of 4G smartphones under the “LYF” brand that will facilitate voice calls over the LTE (Long-Term Evolution) network. Once the services are launched commercially, employees will get billed.

A 14 December report from investment banking firm Credit Suisse, which surveyed Jio’s network in Mumbai, found that the network was not just on par with incumbent telcos, it was better in some places.

With this, Vodafone has become 2 operator to launch 4G services, after Airtel.

Jio has accumulated airwaves in the 1800MHz band and 800MHz band and is also said to be signing spectrum sharing and trading deals with Reliance Communications for the latter’s 800 Mhz airwaves.