Innovation

Jio's innovation lies in the use of technology. Its the first telecom provider in India have switched towards a packet switching network.

A packet switching network enables your voice to be broken down into small data packets, which travel from the sender to the receiver. Because of this, there is no need to maintain a dedicated channel for a single call, Users don’t have to wait for a free circuit for a call.

With the use of this technology, Jio can offer to give calls for free since its calls don't use circuit switching. Overall a calls worth in bytes would cost them less as compared to other competitors.

Inspiration

The telecom industry in India stands on the 117th position in terms of average connection speed due to lack of investments in technology.

In order to provide data oxygen to the growing digital footprint in India, Jio invested crores of rupees to help upgrade this technology. This will help kick start the Digital India campaign in India.

"Reliance has always had the mission to enable and empower the young population of India as we believe that this population will be a huge part of the development of the country" - Arpit Agarwal, Senior Manager.

Today, Jio has not only reached the young population but has also reached rural India. The connectivity all over India has increased due to the low tariff on voice calls and Internet services provided by Jio.

Overall impact

Reliance Jio now offers the lowest 4G tariff's in the world and has helped provide the necessary supprt to support Government of India's push towards a Digital India.

Along with this it now employees more than 60,000 employees who are the under the age of the 30.

With the help of its 5000 core start up fund, it now supports budding entrepreneur's in key cities by building Digital Hubs.

Business benefit

Reliance Jio invested ₹ 150,000 Crores ($ 22 billion) into this fibre optic network.

Put this in perspective – this is more than two times the combined investment of Airtel, Idea and Vodafone in the 4G segment (and remember that most of the other investments are not even complete as of now).

Reliance Jio has captured 10% of the total 2.4lakh crore rupees telecom market in India and is expected to break even at the Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation & amortisation) level by FY18 with at least 83 million customers generating an ARPU (average revenue per user) of Rs 246 per month, analysts and experts said, enthused by the 4G newcomer’s strong 60% customer conversion to paid services.

Social and environmental benefit

Digital India

The Government of India has been talking about Digital India for some time now. And when it comes to execution, there’s always a grey area. And that is typically attributed to choppy infrastructure. This has been partly taken care of by the investments made by Jio. Undoubtedly, there is immense potential for a nation with 35 percent of population below the age of 35 and with an immense push toward digitization (digital banking, government schemes, big data analytics, and e-commerce)

Over the years, with data being important and users relying on Wi-Fi networks, and unlimited plans for data, the introduction of Jio will not only be a big booster for improving the adoptance of the above mentioned services, but it will also make sure the costs of using data are minimal.

To add to this the fact that Indians would never have to pay for a voice call for any call placed on the from the Jio network within India, itself is a turning point in the way Indians experienced telecom services. Jio also acknowledged the contribution of students in furthering innovation, by offering them 25 percent more data on an already aggressively priced data offering. Besides, Reliance Retail announced 4G LTE smartphones starting at Rs 2999 and the Jio-Fi personal Wi-Fi router would now be available for Rs 1999. When the 4G tariffs were announced, it was among the lowest 4G tariffs in the world, currently at Rs 50 per GB of data.

Employment

With 60,000 employees onboard, Jio boasts of a population of young minds working towards building the best data service that there is going to be in the country, with the average age of employees at Jio being 30.

Start- Ups

For this, Jio has created a Digital India, a 5,000 Crore Startup Fund and are also working to create Digital Entrepreneurship Hubs in key cities. Its aim is to build a platform for young Indians who want to create businesses of the future.

Impact of Jio on environment

As mentioned above, in order to provide support to its services, Jio installed around 250,000 Kms of fiber optics cable. While doing is, it also took into consideration the toll such operation have on the environment and was the first telecom operator in the country to lease fibre being laid by the government under the BharatNet initiative. The company leased out dark/unused fibre and is studying the business prospects to use it in states of Haryana and Karnataka.

Short term and long term effects

Short Term Effects:

1. More users opting for Jio due to free calling and data benefits

2. Competition faced by other telecom players: The annual revenue of Indian telecom firms declined for the first time since 2008-09 to Rs1.88 trillion in 2016-17 (from Rs1.93 trillion the previous year), and will decline further to Rs1.84 trillion in 2017-18.

Long Term effects:

1. Jio on the move to become the super dominant player in the telecom industry

2. Digital freedom for all Indians

3. Analysts expect Jio’s market share to 31% by March 2022

Future of Jio

The Reliance Jio endeavor is a big bet on the future, and the company’s present aim is to establish the ideal eco-system for when that future arrives. Despite having a massive user base, internet penetration and speed in India is woefully low when compared to other countries. Only about 24.3 percent of the Indian population accessed the internet through mobile phones in 2016. But the figure is expected to rise to 37.4 percent in 2021 as the Indian population, particularly in rural areas, becomes progressively ‘digital’. As an increasing number of people will require mobile and internet connectivity in the coming decade, Reliance Jio will be in the prime position to capture the massive untapped market.

Jio’s ambitions aren’t limited exclusively to mobile internet. The company plans to rake in profits from its LYF brand smartphones, broadband internet offerings, and Jio mobile applications — the entire suite, which includes apps like Jio Music, Jio TV, Jio Cinema, and a digital wallet, will be charged as a Rs 15,000-per-year subscription. Reliance also plans to consolidate its ‘Digital India’ missive with the setting up of Jionet Wi-Fi hotspots in multiple cities — Mumbai, Kolkata, Surat, Ahmedabad, Indore, Mussoorie, and Lucknow are among the cities which currently feature these hotspots in select locations.

Internet of Things (IoT) has been widely touted as one of the most promising technologies of the near future. Understanding the potential of this burgeoning sector, RIL in November entered into a partnership with US-based General Electric (GE) to enter the industrial IoT space. The partnership, under which RIL will reportedly develop software applications for GE’s Predix cloud platform, will provide IoT solutions to customers in various industries such as telecom, healthcare, oil and gas, and power among others. Driven by the industries’ need for increasing operational efficiency and the widespread use of data analytics, RIL will generate vast new revenue streams not only in India, but around the world.

Interview

Mr.Arpit Agarwal, Senior Manager,IT Audit