Reliance Jio announces Spectrum acquisition in the 800MHz and 1800MHz bands

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (“RJIL”) announces that it has successfully acquired the right to use spectrum in 13 key circles across India in the recently concluded spectrum auction conducted by DoT, Government of India. Circle wise details of spectrum acquired are provided in the following table:

Complementary Spectrum Footprint

RJIL plans to provide seamless 4G services using LTE in 800MHz, 1800MHz and 2300MHz bands through an integrated ecosystem.

With this investment, in addition to the pan-India 2300MHz spectrum, RJIL has spectrum in either 800MHz or 1800MHz or both in 20 out of total 22 circles in the country. This combined spectrum footprint across frequency bands provides significant network capacity and deep coverage.

800MHz is a popular choice for sub-GHz LTE implementation globally by leading operators across North America, South Korea, Australia and other markets to enhance coverage and service experience. In addition, in the Indian context, LTE implementation in this band has greater potential given spectrum availability in the future.

Through this acquisition, RJIL’s total equivalent spectrum footprint has increased from 597.6MHz to 751.1MHz (including uplink and downlink), strengthening its position as the largest holder of liberalized spectrum.

Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited said: “Jio’s seamless 4G services using proven multi-band LTE technology and supported by our large spectrum footprint will provide superior user experience for voice, video and data services in line with the best service providers in the world.”

Cost

The payment to be made for the right to use this technology agnostic spectrum for a period of 20 years is Rs. 10,077.53 crore, as per the details below:

(amount in Rs. crore)

* The above amounts are provisional, subject to adjustment for partial spectrum and DOT confirmation.

RJIL’s Services

RJIL is deploying an enhanced packet core network to create a futuristic high capacity infrastructure to handle huge demand for data, video and voice services.

There are several devices in the value segment that support high-end data rich services. Many of these devices are already available in India, with the capability to operate on both TD-LTE and FD-LTE technologies in the RJIL spectrum bands as well as on conventional 2G / 3G networks. The global handset ecosystem is rapidly evolving, and multiband, multimode handsets shall soon become the default offering.