Jio launch date may be out at Friday AGM

Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, could use the company's 41st annual general meeting to announce plans for telecom subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm.

Sources said Ambani could use the platform to announce an official launch date for the venture. The group's investment in Reliance Jio Infocomm increased to Rs 29,700 crore in 2014-15 from Rs 22,700 crore in the prior financial year.

"Reliance Jio Infocomm's ambitious project to provide reliable (fourth generation) high-speed internet services with rich communication and digital services continues to gather speed. We have made significant progress, including physical network infrastructure, systems and processes, sales and distribution network, applications and services and content. We are currently working with several strategic partners in deployment and testing activities," Mukesh Ambani had said in the previous Reliance Industries' annual report.

Reliance Jio Infocomm is setting up a nationwide fourth-generation telecom network to provide communication and digital services education, healthcare, security, financial services, government-citizen interfaces and entertainment.

Reliance Jio Infocomm will use the LTE (long-term evolution) technology in the 800, 1,800 and 2,300 megahertz (MHz) bands. Apart from nationwide spectrum in the 2,300 MHz band, the company has spectrum in the 800 MHz and 1,800 MHz bands in 20 of the country's 22 telecom circles.

"This combined spectrum footprint across frequency bands provides significant network capacity and deep coverage," Reliance Industries had said in its annual report.

Reliance Jio has bought spectrum in the 800 MHz and 1,800 MHz bands in 13 telecom circles through auctions.

Given the large investments already made and plans for setting up office infrastructure in 880 towns, the rollout is expected to start by the second half of 2015-16.

"Reliance added over 900 stores in 2014-15. Most of these stores were in the Digital Express Mini format, which focusses on mobile phones. We suspect this ramp-up is linked to Reliance's telecom plans and the need to develop a device eco-system for Reliance Jio Infocomm," Jefferies India Private said in a report.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)