RIL plans to offer low-cost 4G service on Rs 3,500 tablets

After the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries acquired Infotel Broadband -- and through it 4G licences and spectrum -- it was a foregone conclusion that the group would make a big move into the telecom sector.

The company has already spent $2.8 billion on its telecom dreams and telecom is among the five main businesses that RIL group expects to focus on in the next 5-10 years.

Now, according to an Economic Times report, Reliance Industries in keen to provide low-cost tablets powered by high-speed data services by the end of next year.

The petroleum-to-retail giant is planning to launch tablets at as low a price as Rs 3,500 bundled with a high-speed data offering of 1 GB at Rs 10, which the ET report says is about one-tenth of the current 3G prices.

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Infotel was the only entity to get pan-India licence in the auction of Broadband Wireless Access spectrum conducted by the government last year, and thus RIL now is the only company to have pan-India spectrum to offer wireless broadband services on the 4G technology platform having paid Rs 13,000 crore (Rs 130 billion) for these airwaves.

The company had earlier planned to launch services by mid next year on data cards that could be plugged into computers and laptops, the ET report added.

If RIL does indeed launch Rs 3,500-tablets with affordable 4G data services, it would create a major upheaval in the telecom industry, effectively nullifying 'the business case for 3G for existing mobile operators all of whom on an average offer 1 GB of downloads for Rs 100 currently', says the report.

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Earlier, in June this year, Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani had given a glimpse into the future of the company at the company's annual general meeting in Mumbai saying that RIL would be debt-free in the current 2011-2012 fiscal, and that it will add further financial muscle to energy-to-retail conglomerate led by him.

Ambani had also said that that RIL will partner world leaders for entering new businesses in the country.

Sitting on pan-India spectrum for Broadband Wireless Access for nearly a year, Ambani had said that RIL is in the process of conceptualising the products and services to be offered.

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Broadband and broadband-enabled digital services are the next big leap forward in the digital transformation of our knowledge economy, he had added.

"We foresee the creation and social value via the creation of a national, next generation broadband infrastructure," Ambani had said at the AGM.

Media reports also state that Reliance plans to launch broadband Data service in about 700 Indian cities in the first phase, with data speeds ranging from 50 Mbps to 100 Mbps.

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It is also learnt that Reliance is in the process of appointing merchants who would supply broadband equipment based on Qualcomm's Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology so that it can roll out its wireless broadband service by the end of 2012.

Towards this end, the company is also said to be in talks with mobile tower firms to lease 26,000 towers across India for the ambitious launch.

RIL has a 95 per cent stake in Infotel Broadband Services which emerged as the sole successful bidder in all the 22 circles (pan-India) for the Broadband Wireless Access 4G Spectrum auction which was conducted by the Department of Telecom in June 2010.

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Global majors like Vodafone, Verizon and Telenor have deployed LTE networks in some developed markets.

RIL had launched mobile services in 2003, before the group was split between brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani.

At the time, it offered mobile handsets at an initial payment of Rs 501.