Rel Jio will offer 4G LTE mobiles at 4k

MUMBAI: India's richest man Mukesh Ambani, owner of energy-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries (RIL), will launch fourth generation (4G) telecommunications services by December this year as he promises to offer 4G-enabled handsets for less than Rs 4,000 along with voice and data monthly plans between Rs 300 and Rs 500. The aim is to reach 10 crore consumers within the first year of launch. Reliance's 4G service will offer high-speed internet at 1/10th the cost of the current plans available in the market.

With this, Jio aims to garner revenues of $10 billion (over Rs 64,000 crore) within the first year of the commercial launch itself, recovering a major part of the $15 billion (around Rs 1 lakh crore) of investments made in the business so far, which threatens to shake up the mobile industry and pose a challenge to leading telcos Bharti Airtel and Vodafone. India's largest listed home-grown telecommunications major Bharti Airtel, with current revenues of Rs 55,500 crore, has already launched its 4G service in select circles.

"Over the next few months, we will initiate an extensive beta launch. This beta programme will be upgraded into commercial operations around December of this year. The financial year to March 2017 will be the first full year of commercial operations for Jio," said Ambani during the 41st annual general meeting (AGM) of India's second most valued firm by market capitalization in Mumbai on Friday. It was the first time the chairman's wife Nita Ambani attended the RIL AGM as a board member. Their sons — Akash and Anant — were also present.

Not all are enthused with Ambani's mega investments plans and foray into new businesses. Investment adviser S P Tulsian believes that not a single business that RIL entered in the last one decade is profitable on a net basis. "Retail may grow over 30% in top line, but what's the bottom line? We don't want ebitda numbers, we need PBT figures. Reliance Jio will not be profitable on a net basis in the next two years as depreciation and interest costs between Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 18,000 crore will take a toll on the profitability," said Tulsian.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)