RIL to hit data services market with 4G technology on Rs. 3500 tablet

<p>Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India’s largest private sector company by market valuation, is planning to alter the course of data services market altogether. Igniting this change will be RIL’s ambitious plan to roll out fourth generation (4G) mobile broadband services by the end of 2012, that too on attractively priced Rs. 3500 tablets.</p>
<p>Initially, RIL planned to roll out 4G services on data cards that could be plugged into communication devices. As of now, RIL is planning to bundle up 4G services with low cost tablets, which will cost one-fourth the price of a regular 3G enabled tablet. The data services offering will be priced as low as 1 GB at Rs. 10 – nearly one tenth of the current 3G prices.</p>
<p>Reliance Industries entered the mobile broadband sector by acquiring 95% stake in Infotel, which emerged as a successful bidder in all the 22 circles of the auction for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) 4G Spectrum conducted by the DoT in June 2010, becoming the only company to have pan-India spectrum to offer wireless broadband services on the 4G technology platform. In rolling out this technology, RIL hopes to be the chief catalyst in a building knowledge economy that can place India at the forefront of the countries providing world-class 4G services.</p> 
<p>Industry analysts believe that RIL’s entry into the telecom quarter is certain to revise and revive the sector all together. By subsidizing the prices for data services well as for the carrier technology, Reliance could easily render 3G services obsolete. Also affected will be the players in the dongle business, plug-in devices that provide wireless connectivity to the internet. Undoubtedly, RIL’s foray into the sector will ring in good news for customers as it is likely to push down the prices of broadband services and boost access to internet across the country. With auxiliary plans of leveraging 4G broadband services into digital education format, RIL is looking to widen the scope of 4G technology at length.</p>