The telecommunication arm of RIL, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) will start the testing of its messaging feature on the fourth-generation long term evolution, or 4G LTE, platform. Reliance Jio has recently received approval for the same from the Department of Telecommunication (DoT).
According to an internal noting of the DoT dated 31st July, the department said: “For testing voice over LTE technology, availability of SMS is an important feature. So, it is desirable to test it.”To test its voice services, RIL had requested the government to allot 10,000 phone numbers. This approval is followed by an extension of six months granted by the telecommunication department to RJIL to test voice over the same 4G LTE technology.
In addition to this, Reliance is focusing majorly on the launch of its 4G services across the country. The company held meeting with Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) for the proposed roll-out of the telecommunication services in the metropolis. The company officials explained the civic authority their plan to lay 750 km of underground optical fibre network within KMC’s jurisdiction. Reliance Jio Business Head and State Mentor (East), Tarun Jhunjhunwala said, “The discussion we had with KMC today was positive and more likely to take place.” Hemet Mayor-in-Council member (engineering) Atin Ghosh. The officials at KMC briefed the company about the legalities involved and the related fee structure. Juhunjhunwala added that once the legal process is completed, work on the Rs 3,000-crore project would commence immediately. According to the estimation, this project would be completed by the first quarter of 2014. Recently, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of RIL met Mamata Banerjee, West Bengal Chief Minister in Mumbai.
Reliance plunged into the telecommunication sector by paying an entry fee of 1,658 crore. The company attained the license to offer voice services. In accordance to its acquisition of Infotel Broadband in 2010, RIL got the licenses to offer broadband wireless services across the country. Currently, RJIL is focusing to develop its 4G-LTE technology which will provide voice in the 20 megahertz spectrum in the 2.3 gigahertz band. This spectrum band was previously used to transmit data.
At the last Annual General Meeting held in Mumbai, Mukesh Ambani spoke about his vision behind this new telecommunication venture. He envisaged the country’s future to transform to digital. For a country like India, everything done digitally is transformed to a value-creating and life-enriching experience across all strata of the society.