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Indian telecom giant announces biggest ever digital push
September 1, 2016, 1:20 pm

File photo of Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd [Xinhua]

File photo of Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd [Xinhua]

India’s Reliance Industries unveiled its new telecom network on Thursday with chairman Mukesh Ambani announcing that his Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. unit will offer free voice calls and cheaper data tariffs.

New entrant Jio’s service will debut Sept. 5 and will be free until December, Ambani said during the energy giant’s annual shareholder meet in India’s business capital Mumbai.

“The era of paying for voice calls is ending,” said Ambani. The free voice call service will be offered on Jio for life, he said.

Ambani vowed to “transform India from a high-priced data market to one with the lowest data rates anywhere in the world.”

Reliance will begin charging subscribers as little as 149 rupees ($2.22) a month for data after December.

Reliance Jio is a unit of Reliance Industries and is controlled by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, and Idea Cellular – the nation’s top three cellular carriers – have already started cutting prices, which analysts say is aimed at retaining customers with the impending entry of Jio.

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, an oil and gas behemoth, is India’s most profitable conglomerate. He is also now targeting consumers, taking steps most recently into telecoms, where he has spent at least $18 billion on 4G telecoms brand Jio.

 

TBP and Agencies