Jio teams up with Google to launch budget 5G phone
AMBANI: RELIANCE’S ULTRA-HIGH SPEED NETWORK WILL BE WORLD’S LARGEST
INDIA’S telecom leader Reliance said on Monday (29) it’s working with Alphabet Inc’s Google to launch a budget 5G smartphone as it laid out a $25 billion (£21.42bn) plan to introduce the next-generation wireless services within two months.
Addressing the company’s annual general meeting, Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani said Jio’s 5G network will be the world’s largest, launching in main cities, including New Delhi and Mumbai, before being expanded across India by December next year.
Ambani, who is one of India’s richest men, said only that the phone being developed with Google would be “ultra-affordable”. The cheapest 5G phones retail for around $150 (£128.5) in India, where about 700 million people don’t have a smartphone.
“To take the 5G mass market, a sub-$100 phone is imperative and Jio is rightly positioned to bring 5G to the masses,” Neil Shah, vice president of research at Counterpoint said.
5G data speeds in India are expected to be about 10 times faster than those of 4G, with the network considered to be vital for emerging technologies such as self-driving cars and artificial intelligence.
Reliance’s 5G plans throw down the gauntlet to rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Idea in the world’s second biggest mobile market. Shares in Airtel and Vodafone closed down 1.3 per cent and 3.3 per cent respectively in a weak Mumbai market where Reliance also slipped 0.78 per cent.
Jio, India’s biggest mobile carrier with more than 420 million customers, snapped up airwaves worth $11bn (£9.4bn) in a $19bn (£16.2bn) 5G spectrum auction in August. The aggressive 5G strategy builds on Jio’s playbook of disrupting India’s telecoms market having sparked a price war in 2016 when it launched cheap 4G data plans and free voice services, and later a 4G smartphone costing just $81 (£63.4), again in partnership with Google.
With a market value of $220bn (£188.5bn), Ambani’s empire spans telecoms, retail, oil-and-gas and new energy.
He said he was among those mentoring his children on a daily basis as they begin to take the reins at the company, with Akash and Isha assuming leadership roles in Jio digital and in retail respectively, and Anant joining the new energy business.
Akash, 30, was also named chairman of the board of Reliance’s telecom unit in June.
Ambani senior added that he would provide an update next year on IPO plans for Reliance’s digital and retail units, which raised around $22bn (£18.85bn) from global investors such as KKR & Co Inc and Silver Lake in 2020.
Reliance also announced the long-awaited integration of its grocery shopping app JioMart with investor-partner Meta Platform Inc’s WhatsApp.
Separately, Isha Ambani said Reliance will launch a new consumer goods company this year, without giving details. Reuters reported in May Reliance has plans to acquire dozens of grocery and non-food brands to build a $6.5bn (£5.5bn) business to challenge giants like Unilever.