In their effort to jumpstart the country’s broadband wireless access (BWA) services market, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India’s largest private sector enterprise run by Mukesh Ambani, has recently pumped out its plans to team up with diverse partners in order to roll out their Long Term Evolution Time Division Duplex (LTE TDD) network in India.
RIL is set to be in the fore-front of LTE TDD ecosystem in India, thereby becoming the first Indian telecom operator to deploy a technology on a mass-market level, which has not been previously introduced anywhere else in the world.
Mathew Oommen, Reliance’s new president of corporate strategy, responsible for driving the company’s wireless broadband developments, presented an optimistic view in favor of Reliance saying, “There is no better network than [the one] Reliance is building for the Facebooks, Twitters and Googles of the world to partner with and use this network as a reference framework of a rich experience. All the major online services players have a great opportunity to partner with companies like Reliance to offer truly differentiated digital media services.”
RIL is the only company to hold a BWA license that covers all of India’s 22 circles (telecom service areas) following its acquisition in June 2010 of Infotel Broadband Services, acquiring 2.3GHz airwaves in India’s BWA spectrum auction.
Being the first to introduce such a technology, Reliance is now faced with many considerable opportunities to tap into. Companies such as Facebook and Google, who run on over the top carrier networks would find a mutually benefitting partnership in Reliance’s telecom enterprise in order to propel great networking experience. Especially in India, where social networking is on a rampant rise, companies look to propel options that will encourage wholesome networking capabilities without the hindrances of low speed and lack of mobility.
The prime focus of Reliance’s telecom venture would be to first establish widespread connectivity across India. Currently only 0.1% of 10.5 million strong population of India uses broadband services. Reliance’s LTE TDD network has the capability to deliver wireless Internet services to even the most rural areas of India. Mere selling of wireless broadband services will not be the agenda of LTE TDD. In order to ensure people adopt this change readily, Reliance will have to understand what people seek from a broadband service and offer that at cost-effective price points.