Reliance Jio: Announcement on 100 mn user base, VoLTE feature phone likely today

Reliance Industries Ltd chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani is most likely to make an official announcement on Reliance Jio’s customer base, which has crossed 100-million customer mark in just 170 days of commercial launch.

Ambani is also expected to share Reliance Jio’s future growth plans.

Reliance Jio, which commercially launched operations on September 5, 2016, is currently offering free voice and data services under the rechristened ‘Happy New Year’ offer to its customers in India. It has also been offering free access to its digital content ecosystem.

Ambani could also announce its subsidized VoLTE feature phone bundled with free voice and data service. ET earlier reported that Reliance Jio, the 4G entrant, was working with Lava International and Chinese original equipment makers to manufacture VoLTE feature phones. Jio is also said to be subsidising part of the selling price to make the 4G feature phones available at about Rs 1,000 (about $15).

Reliance Jio had on Monday signed a strategic partnership with Uber for the roll out of JioMoney, the PPI Wallet, as one of the payment options for the latter’s services in India. Under the tie-up, Jioand Uber will offer exclusive incentives to every user paying for Uber rides through JioMoney.