Over 100 Million Users for Reliance Jio in First Year of Launch

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) has set a target of reaching 100 million users in the first year of its launch, an ambitious one as considering the total 3G subscribers in India is at about 93 million.

Moreover, the 3G subscribers were garnered over a period of five years, following the 2010 spectrum auction, even though it took another 2-3 years for a complete rollout. The total 3G penetration stands at just 9 per cent of the total mobile subscriber base of 981 million, according to a recent study by brokerage firm CLSA.

“Today, nobody believes Jio will have 100 million customers in our first year. But we will accomplish it because we believe so,” Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said, answering an employee’s question during the launch of the company’s 4G services in Navi Mumbai.

On Sunday, RJIL, a subsidiary of RIL, has launched its 4G and digital services at a gala event attended by nearly 35,000 Reliance Group employees and their families. The event was also like webcast across 1,100 locations simultaneously over RJIL network, enabling a total of 1.5 lakh employees logging on.

“With the employee launch, we will bring in lakhs of people on to the Jio network,” Ambani said.

With the launch of the services, RJIL intends to put India among the top 10 countries in terms of internet and mobile broadband penetration in the “next few years”, he said, adding at present, India ranks about 150 among the 230 countries. “Jio is conceived to change this,” he added.

Stating that India has the youngest population in the world, Ambani said that RJIL intends to tap the opportunity to transform the lives of 1.3 billion Indians.

 “The world is at the beginning of a digital revolution. Anything and everything that can go digital is going digital at an exponential rate, faster than what you and I can imagine. Whether it’s entertainment, commerce, healthcare, education, governance, life is going digital,” Ambani said as the reasons for the group’s foray into the digital arena.

“Through the ages, information and knowledge have driven humanities’ progress. Life itself has relied on information to progress. Our genetic code, our DNA, the basis of our evolution is nothing but information,” he added.

Reliance Jio’s service will include video streaming, music streaming, money payments and video calling.

Agencies