Jio, Samsung team up to roll out nextgen cellular IoT network in India

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm and Samsung Electronics have jointly announced plans to deploy next generation cellular IoT (Internet of Things)  network to bring LTE (Long Term Evolution) coverage to 99 per cent of the Indian population and significantly improve network capacity across the country.

Samsung will supply Jio with equipment to boost LTE network coverage and capacity, and deploy a next-generation cellular IoT network, adding to the joint effort in the deployment of a nationwide cellular IoT network.

The IoT network, the first of its kind in the country, will support a variety of consumer and enterprise uses such as vehicle tracking, smart appliances, smart metering, security, surveillance and more.

''Making sure that everyone benefits from mobile broadband that is both available and affordable to all is our top priority. We will once again partner with Samsung to offer a suite of innovative services for all users,'' said Jyotindra Thacker, president of Reliance Jio Infocomm.

''We are delighted to contribute to Jio's success story and rapid growth. We have been striving to offer the best experience possible to all users at Jio. Jio's LTE network will unlock the potential of IoT and promise a much more convenient and safe environment for users,'' said Youngky Kim, president and head of networks business at Samsung Electronics.

The NB-IoT service will work on the existing spectrum held by Jio and would only require a simple software upgrade of the already installed base stations for services roll-out.

The partnership, however, has deployed a new and dedicated Cellular IoT virtualised core. The commercial NB-IoT network successfully established by Jio and Samsung in Mumbai in February 2018 will soon be made available in other parts of the country as well, a Samsung release stated.

Besides providing faster internet access for users across India, the partnership aims at generation of unexplored services and business models for enterprises, opening a new phase of collaboration between the two companies, the release added.

Reliance Jio uses Voice over LTE technology, which is future ready and can be easily upgraded to support even more data, as technologies advance on to 5G, 6G and beyond.

Jio said its aim is to bring transformational changes in the Indian digital services space to enable the vision of Digital India for 1.2 billion Indians and propel India into global leadership in digital economy. It has created an eco-system comprising network, devices, applications and content, service experience and affordable tariffs.