Trai had asked the Attorney General for views on Jio's free voice and data offering till March 2017, that rivals have termed predatory.
On Monday, Ambani had said the Reliance group was open to join hands with Bharti Airtel for improving telecom network for 4G services in Punjab.
The ministry of consumer affairs had sent notices to both the companies under the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act of 1950, which bars use of prime minister's name and picture for commercial use.
The much-awaited soft launch of Reliance Jio's next-generation mobile services has been delayed by another month.
Company now plans to use 1800 MHz band spectrum as the primary wave while the 2300 Mhz wave will be supplementary for enterprise customers.
Reliance Jio said certain tariff plans will continue to give subscribers free streaming access to IPL 2025.
With the Adanis submitting an earnest money deposit (EMD) of just Rs 100 crore on Monday for the upcoming 5G spectrum auction, the apprehension among the rivals that the group is nursing ambitions of being an all-India mobile player has been allayed at least for now. Based on its EMD, analysts say it can buy spectrum worth just Rs 900 crore, whose use will be limited to enterprises and captive networks -- that too is likely only in a few circles where it has its infrastructure like ports, airports, and power stations. While getting all-India millimetre band spectrum of 400 MHz (which costs Rs 2,800 crore) is ruled out, it might choose circles like Gujarat and Mumbai to start with.
Jio is now present in all of the 29 states.
It came as a surprise to all stakeholders - competing telecom companies (telcos), most analysts and even the government's internal projections on revenues from the 5G auctions. Reliance Jio disrupted all calculations by paying a stiff Rs 40,000 crore to buy 10 MHz of spectrum in the 700-MHz band, globally considered a key band for efficient 5G service coverage, along with the default 3.5 GHz band and the ultra-high speed and low-latency millimetre band of 26 GHz band. So what made Jio pay almost 45 per cent of its total spend in this auction for the 700 MHz band - much more than what it rustled up even for the 3.5 GHz band?
A war of words between Reliance Industries' Gautam Chikermane and hacker group Anonymous India broke out on Twitter.
The company had announced similar pricing for Sri Lanka, where its application was in advanced stages of regulatory clearance.
Deals between the two could earn RCom Rs 14,000 cr, says Anil Ambani.
Reliance Jio's aggressive target to reach 100 million households through the launch of the 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) could make it one of the world's largest players in this space. But this also marks a change from its earlier strategy of offering fibre-to-the home (FTTH) broadband to households. Despite its best efforts, in two years Jio has been able to connect only 7 million households with FTTH, as permission for right of way for the last mile became a major impediment and the process of laying ducts for the roll-out was slow and cumbersome.
In the third infrastructure sharing agreement between firms run by brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani, Reliance Industries' telecom arm has agreed to use Reliance Communication Ltd's intra-city fibre network to roll out 4G services.
Total wireless subscribers increased from 1.1 billion, in January to 1.2 billion in February, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 0.72 per cent.
Reliance Jio bought spectrum in the 1800 MHz band last February.
India's space regulator INSPACe has granted a license to Starlink to offer space-based internet services in the country. The authorization is valid for five years and subject to regulatory provisions and clearances.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) is set to introduce key reforms aimed at facilitating smoother mega initial public offerings (IPOs). Key among the proposals is a reduction in the quota reserved for individual investors - those applying for less than Rs 2,00,000 per application - from the current 35 per cent to 25 per cent for large IPOs (issue size above Rs 5,000 crore).
At Rs 2,999, LYF Flame is one of the most affordable VoLTE smartphone in the market now.
Surajeet Das Gupta explains why Mukesh Ambani's target is by no means impossible.
Airtel Xstream will allow its subscribers to access live TV, video, music, news and sports on an over-the-top smart stick, interned-enabled set top box, and handheld devices.
Reliance Jio, India's biggest telecom operator, is planning to launch an initial public offering (IPO) and listing on bourses in the first half of 2026, billionaire Mukesh Ambani said on Friday. Jio is currently a unit of Reliance Industries Ltd, India's most valuable company.
Once launched, RJio services will cover over 18,000 towns and over 200,000 villages across all the 22 service areas of the country
Elon Musk's Starlink has got licence for satcom services in India, according to sources.
Reliance is leveraging the technological change of building a virtualised 5G network which would see the current hardware-dependent networks shift to software-centric platforms.
In what could be one of the largest launches in the telecom services space, Reliance Jio Infocomm is set to roll out its 4G LTE services in 800 Indian cities between April and June next year.
With the latest spectrum acquisition, the telecom venture would be the holder of the largest quantum of liberalised spectrum.
Gearing up for its pan-India 4G services launch in coming months, Reliance Jio Infocomm has approached the Department of Telecom for a network test conducted along with security agencies.
'There is no doubt at all that Jio's disruption of the mobile broadband market was a turning point for India's digital economy.'
Reliance Jio's decision to acquire 700 MHz in combination with the possible use of an advanced standalone (SA) 5G network could give it an edge over its rivals, according to most analysts. The dissenters argue that the stiff price tag touching Rs 40,000 crore to grab 10 MHz of spectrum in 700 to provide coverage for its SA 5G network which offers ultra-low latency (unlike non-standalone or NSA), has a long way to go in India in terms of finding use cases that can be monetised. Globally, 700 MHz is a pivotal band which provides huge coverage, indoor penetration (especially useful in India where walls are thick) and is already considered by the European Union to be the 'pioneer band' for 5G, with 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz, both of which were auctioned in India recently.
Data traffic generated by such tests is rivaling combined traffic other operators present for 15-20 years
Airtel has informed the government and regulator Trai that it has approached Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea with a proposal for a joint initiative to unite the industry against rising telecom fraud and scams.
Reliance Jio, the telecom business of the Mukesh Ambani-promoted conglomerate, is expected to go for an initial public offering (IPO) of over $6.25 billion either in the second or the third quarter of the calendar year 2025, sources said. Reliance Retail is likely to be listed around the same time with a short gap, it is learnt. The timing of the two IPOs, however, will depend on the company's assessment of the market conditions among other factors.
Reliance Jio Infocomm has moved the Bombay High Court seeking approval for amalgamating its long distance services arm Infotel with itself.
As part of a plan to refinance debt and expand its upcoming constellation of satellites, French satellite major Eutelsat Communications will raise euro 1.35 billion, or $1.55 billion, through a reserved capital increase and a rights issue, the company announced on Friday. Bharti Enterprises' space venture, Bharti Space Ltd, will invest euro 31.4 million, or $36 million, in the capital raise.
Vi partners SpaceX-rival AST SpaceMobile for satcom service on smartphones
Jio is targeting to differentiate its services via superior data and an associated ecosystem of content.
Billionaire industrialist Mukesh Ambani described his 2016 return to the telecom industry with Reliance Jio as the "biggest risk" of his life, saying that even if analysts' predictions of financial failure had come true, it would still have been worth it for the role it played in transforming India digitally.
New customer additions by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel pushed the Indian telecom subscriber base past 120.5 crore in June, according to a Trai report released on Tuesday. The wireless subscriber base grew marginally to over 117 crore and wireline connections in the country increased to 3.51 crore in June from 116.89 crore and 3.47 crore, respectively, in May, as per data released in Trai's subscriber report for June.
The Unified Licence for all 22 Service Areas across India will make the company the first telecom operator in the country to get pan India Unified Licence, the company said in a statement.
