Reliance Retail to sell 4G smartphones under ‘LYF’ Brand

Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Retail will soon start selling 4G LTE smartphones under the ‘LYF’ brand. The move comes months ahead of a planned 4G service launch from group company Reliance Jio Infocomm.

“The brand … will offer high performance handsets that deliver a true 4G experience comparable to the best in the world,” a company note said as part of parent Reliance Industries’ quarterly results. The LYF range would have features like voice over LTE (VoLTE), voice over wi-fi (VoWiFI), HD voice and HD-quality video calling, the Reliance note said.

Consumption of data, which is most for video, is key to the success of 4G telecom services, which are designed less for voice, unlike the technologies of the previous generation.

Earlier, Reliance Industries had told some mobile phone makers that it would buy 4G phones made to its specifications in an Indian unit. The company anticipates it will need to flood the market with low-end 4G handsets as part of its strategy for Jio.

The delay in its launch has been due its perceived lack of device ecosystem, which operators including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular say has been bridged faster than anticipated.

Reliance Jio has the advantage of a new network-which legacy networks do not have–and therefore may offer faster speeds than established competitors.

However, the telecom company still needs customers to appreciate the difference. The company has said it will invest Ra 1 lakh crore on its service prior to launch, likely around December.