Reliance Jio to more than double data capacity with new 4G sites

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday said that Reliance Jio will more than double its data capacity to better serve its customers, and to make the network faster and stronger.

Ambani said that Jio already has more than double the number of 4G base station as compared to all telcos’ 4G sites put together in India.”We will more than double our data capacity which means better service experience for our customers…we area making the nertwork faster and stronger,” he added.

Korea’s Samsung is the sole 4G equipment provider to Jio, having bagged successive contracts to supply equipment for over 140,000 sites for pan-India coverage. Jio has lately begun talks with multiple vendors such as Nokia, Ericsson and Huawei following concerns over the Korean company’s future in the network business at the global level.

These vendors have initiated proof-of-concepts (PoCs) with Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio, and are currently testing their equipment across LTE bands. Jio may award the contract by early next year for the next phase of expansion, which will begin later in 2017.

In addition to 4G network equipment, Jio is also testing various network technologies, including carrier aggregation or LTE-Advanced from these vendors, ET earlier reported.

Ambani said that lakhs of customers have opted for Mobile Number Portability services to move to Reliance Jio’s 4G network.

“This trend is increasing day by day. I hope more customers will opt for MNP and make jio their permanent home,” Ambani said.

Reliance Jio’s network will be present in nearly all cities, towns and villages, covering 99% population of country by 2017-end.