The telecom market in India is booming. In fact, many people would say that ‘booming’ is an understatement. For a country with over a billion people out of which less than a quarter have access to super-fast networks; there’s a huge opportunity awaiting telecom companies. The newest entrant into India’s incredibly lucrative marketplace is Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL). The Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) owned company has been continuously working to put out their long-awaited 4G network into the market. RJIL is the only Indian company with a pan-India 4G license and as such, has been working tirelessly to ensure flawless performance by developing both, technical and infrastructural facilities. Yota Devices, a Russian vendor of products which support 4G is in talks with the Mukesh Ambani-owned company to provide Wi-Fi dongles and routers.
Pavel Zakharkin, business development director at Yota Devices told us that the company’s talks with Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio were at an advanced stage. Reliance Jio is using Yota’s routers and dongles for 4G trials on the 2300 MHz bandwidth (TD-LTE) in the country. Zakharkin was quoted as saying, “We hope to close a deal with Reliance Jio for our TD-LTE devices.” He also added that Yota was working with RJIL for the testing of devices on the telecom operator’s network.
At the recent annual general meeting of RIL, Mukesh Ambani said that Reliance Jio will conduct extensive tests till early 2015 in order to ensure flawless performance when the network launches later in the year. RIL has infused over Rupees 70,000 crore in RJIL and riding on the back of this investment, the company has been able to seal many deals which will contribute in providing end-users with a great experience.
However, RJIL remained tight-lipped about its collaboration with Yota devices when enquired. “We don’t announce vendor tie-ups. In fact, no vendor can disclose anything to media as there is nondisclosure as part of our contract in all purchases or service contracts.Many vendors come and show their product. That doesn’t mean we are buying from them,” a Reliance Jio spokesperson said in a statement.
Yota Devices’ TD-LTE enabled Wi-Fi dongle ‘Amber’, which can connect 11 different devices simultaneously in a home environment, and portable router ‘Ruby’ are the two products that the company has positioned for the Indian market.
The devices are based on Qualcomm and Altair chipsets, respectively. Zakharkin said the company would ensure the “best pricing” in India, adding that Indian market was similar to Russia’s in terms of price sensitiveness. Besides routers and dongles, Yota Devices also plans to launch an upgraded version of its dual screen equipped YotaPhone that it sells in developed countries.