4G services not till next financial year, says Reliance Jio

Indian consumers will have to wait another year to experience fourth-generation services, as Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd, has said it will launch its much-awaited 4G services only in the next financial year.

''We are still in the process of finalising a lot of things and do not expect to launch it commercially this financial year,'' a senior company executive told journalists on the sidelines of the company's annual general meeting last week.

Upmarket consumers were eagerly expecting the Jio launch within months, but this is not happening as Reliance, experienced in the arbitrary ways of government functioning, carefully prepares the groundwork.

Jio is planning to increase its staff strength incrementally as it prepares for the launch. ''From less than 700 professionals a year back, the Reliance Jio team now has a national footprint of about 3,000 professionals. And we estimate that over the next year, this will grow to a national strength of about 10,000 professionals,'' RIL chairman Ambani told shareholders at the meeting.

Jio is the only company that has all-India 4G spectrum (2,300 MHz). In June 2010, RIL had acquired 4G broadband spectrum from Infotel Broadband for $2.7 billion (Rs12,848 crore) within hours of the company emerging as the pan-India winner.

Jio is also proposing to offer personal Wi-Fi devices as small as a visiting card. These would create hotspots to hook up various devices on high-speed data. In addition, plans to provide small-scale businesses with technology that can help these manage their store and stock over mobiles are afoot. It also plans to launch mobile services like other telecom companies.

''Our offerings will be a combination of what Omnitech, Verizon and Google offer,'' said the company executive.