The telecom venture of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited has inked an agreement with the Chinese company, Huawei. As per the pact, the Chinese company will provide different types of 4G devices.
Contents of the pact
A source from the industry informed that the pact signed by both the companies include 4G devices like Mi-Fi dongles, smartphones and tablets. The source further said that Reliance Jio has inked pacts with few other Chinese device manufacturers, too and is in talks with a couple of others.The dates of shipment have not been finalized.
Reliance Jio had informed in the previous week that it is, “actively working with all major handset device manufacturers to ensure and certify their phones for use on Jio network and shall ensure adequate availability of phones in entire price range.”
4G Preparations of Reliance Jio
Reliance Jio is preparing itself as it will be rolling out its pan-India 4G service, this year. The company has decided to offer efficient network across 5,000 towns and cities and more than 215,000 villages. The company will cover more than 90% of urban regions of the country, this year.
In the second week of May, the organization obtained loan from Korea Trade Insurance Corporationworth USD 750 million or approximately Rs. 4,500 crores. It took the loan to get goods and services from South Korean companies like Samsung Electronics and Ace Technologies Corp. Ace Technologies will give telecom devices and Samsung will back it up with the right technology.
Reliance Jio was one of the companies that acquired broadband wireless access (BWA) in 2010. It is the only company to have pan-India access. This authorizes the company to provide its 4G service in any region of India.
According to the licensing agreement, all the companies that bagged BWA spectrum in 2010 have the deadline of 31st August, 2015 to launch their services in a minimum of 90% of their service areas. If any company fails to do so, then Department of Telecom (DoT) has the authority to take back the radio waves. Besides, DoT has also given the method to the companies through which they are supposed to test their network roll out.
Reliance Jio obtained ISP (Internet Service Provider) license through acquisition of Infotel Broadband Services. Besides, it won a Unified License (UL) in October, 2013. Due to this license, Reliance Jio has the right to make use of any kind of technology to provide varied types of telecommunication services. It has 2300 MHz spectrum band in all the 22 telecommunication areas. In February, last year, the company won 1800 MHz spectrum band in 14 regions.
Besides, post the recent auction, conducted in March, this year, 20 out of 22 regions in spectrum bands of 800MHz and 1800MHz is acquired by Reliance Jio. The company will use the bands to offer efficient voice and 4G services. Till date, Reliance Jio has invested more than USD 14 billion, in all, to set up its telecom infrastructure.
Summary
Reliance Jio has entered into a deal with the Chinese company, Huawei for obtaining varied 4G devices.