BackIndia was stuck with 2G before Jio ended country's data misery: Mukesh Ambani
The telco offered lowest data tariffs in the world and free voice services and while it took 25 years for the Indian telecom industry to build its 2G network, Jio built its 4G network in three years, Ambani said
PremiumNEW DELHI: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani on Thursday said India was stuck with 2G network and Reliance Jio Infocomm's entry ended the country’s data misery and brought digital revolution.
The telco offered lowest data tariffs in the world and free voice services to its users, Ambani said. “While it took 25 years for the Indian telecom industry to build its 2G network, Jio built its 4G network only in three years," he said at the Digital Transformation World Series 2020 virtual conference organised by TM Forum.
Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom operator by market share, started operations in September 2016.
Ambani’s remarks are a reiteration of his aim of making India ‘2G mukt’, or 2G free. The chief of the country’s most valued company, in July, had said about 300 million subscribers in India are trapped in the 2G era and are limited by their feature phones.
“Their (2G) feature phones, keep them excluded, even from the basic uses of internet at a time where both India and the rest of the world are standing at the doorsteps of 5G telephony," Ambani, the world’s fourth richest man, had said.
While Jio wants to make India 2G free, rival Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone Idea Ltd do not subscribe to this idea as they continue to have majority of their customers on the network. But both have been reducing dependency on the 2G network amid heightened competition from Jio, which only offers 4G services and claims to be ready with 5G technology.
Currently, 51% of Airtel’s customer base is on 2G/3G network, while for Vodafone Idea it is 63%. As per industry body GSMA, 12-13% of users will continue to use 2G handsets till 2025 in India.
At the RIL annual general meeting in July, he had said Reliance Jio was ready to introduce 5G technology as soon as spectrum was made available by the Centre.
“We are preparing for rolling out 5G services across India," Ambani said on Thursday.
Ambani said Jio Platforms Ltd, RIL’s digital solutions subsidiary, has built significant capabilities in areas such as cloud and edge computing, data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain, and internet of things (IoT).
“Using these technologies, Jio Platforms is in the process of creating compelling solutions for multiple industry verticals and ecosystems spanning telecom, media and entertainment, new commerce, financial services, education, healthcare and agriculture, he said.
Jio Platforms has raised ₹1.52 trillion from global investors such as Google Inc. and Facebook in less than four months. Proceeds from the stake sales in Jio Platforms will be partly used to realize the company’s 5G goals.
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