Tag: jio

New Jio Phone Reportedly Spotted on BIS Site; Said to Debut as Jio Bharat B2

Jio Bharat B2 may launch in India soon. Although the company has not confirmed the handset, the phone was reportedly spotted on a certification site. Not much is known about the purported feature phone. The moniker is also being speculated. It is expected to come with upgrades over the Jio Bharat B1 which was unveiled in October last year. The older model comes with 4G connectivity and a pre-installed UPI payment feature. The phone supports multiple Indian regional languages and is offered in two colour options.

A 91Mobiles Hindi report states that a new Jio Phone with the model number JBB121B1 on the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) website. The listing does not reveal any details about this handset, and it does not indicate a moniker for the model. The report claims that the phone could debut as the Jio Bharat B2, with more specifications and expected features which may be revealed by the company in the future.

Notably, the Jio Bharat B1 comes with a 2.4-inch QVGA rectangular display and ‎Threadx RTOS. It is equipped with ‎50MB of RAM, Bluetooth, 4G, Wi-Fi, and USB connectivity options and can hold a single nano SIM card.

The Jio Bharat B1 is backed by a 2,000mAh battery, and the company claims that it can offer a standby battery life of up to ‎343 hours. It also comes with an unspecified rear camera unit. The phone is pre-installed with JioCinema and JioSaavn for entertainment, while JioPay allows users to make UPI transactions.

Offered in black and blue colour options the Jio Bharat B1 4G is priced at Rs. 1,299. The feature phone supports 23 languages including multiple Indian regional languages. The handset also has a ‎3.5mm headphone jack. It weighs 110g and measures ‎125mm x 52mm x 17mm in size.

Is the iQoo Neo 7 Pro the best smartphone you can buy under Rs. 40,000 in India? We discuss the company’s recently launched handset and what it has to offer on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Government to Auction Airwaves Valued at $11.6 Billion to Boost Phone Networks

India’s federal cabinet Thursday approved a plan for selling airwaves in an auction to improve quality and coverage of networks in the world’s second-biggest telecom market. The government will sell airwaves valued 963.2 billion rupees ($11.6 billion) at reserve price, according to a statement from India’s Ministry of Communications. A total 10,523.1 megahertz airwaves in eight bands — 800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2300, 2500, 3300 MHz and 26 GHz — will be up for sale. The government didn’t give a firm timeline for the auction.

The airwaves auction, which will include airwaves held by firms undergoing insolvency, will bolster government finances and help narrow budget deficit in the South Asian nation. Additional airwaves will improve the quality of telecom services and widen the coverage for the consumers, Minister for Information & Broadcasting Anurag Thakur told reporters late Thursday.

It will also help major Indian wireless carriers, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Vodafone Idea Ltd., to boost services in the nation with more than a billion phone users. The local carriers launched 5G services late 2022, stoking the ongoing data service boom in India.

The market, however, is locked into an oligopolistic structure, curbing one carrier’s ability to decide pricing. No operator can raise its tariffs unless its rivals do the same or it risks losing subscribers.

“Spectrum auctions in India are always lapped up,” said Utkarsh Sinha, managing director of boutique investment firm Bexley Advisors.

But the fierce competition most companies are locked in is affecting their margins and can affect the ability and size of their bids for additional airwaves, he said, explaining that the pressure on profits can affect the ability and size of the companies’ bids.

In the last auction held in 2022, the Indian government raked in $19 billion with Reliance Jio emerging the top buyer spending more than $11 billion on airwaves.

© 2024 Bloomberg L.P.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Jio AirFiber Introduces New Add-On Data Plans in India: See Price, Offers

Jio has introduced two new AirFiber add-on plans in India. Both these plans can be used over existing plans to get more data. Unveiled in India in September 2023, Jio AirFiber is an alternative to TV, DTH, and broadband services. It initially launched with six plans starting from Rs. 599. Customers could also opt for the Rs. 401 Data Booster Pack if they ran out data. Now the company has launched two new Rs. 101 and Rs. 251 Data Booster Packs. These additional plans are particularly helpful for users who have sizable data usage.

The Rs. 101 Data Booster Pack is said to offer 100GB of additional data over the existing plan at the same speed as the base plan. ‘Over the existing plan’ here translates to the user being able to use the additional data this pack offers, once the data available in the base plan is exhausted.

The Rs. 251 add-on plan, on the other hand, will provide 500GB of additional data over the existing plan, also at the same speed as that plan. Neither plans support voice-calling services.

Validity of these booster packs is the same as the base plan, as well. This means if you use a plan that expires on the 20th of each month and top-up with an additional data pack any day before the 20th of the next month, the booster pack will expire alongside the larger plan.

Jio AirFiber allows users to access more than 550 digital TV channels and offer subscriptions to over 16 OTT applications including Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ Hotstar, JioCinema, SonyLIV, Voot Kids, Voot Select, and Zee5. Its service can be used on several devices like smartphones, PCs, smart TVs, tablets, etc. while running set-top boxes simultaneously.

Is the iQoo Neo 7 Pro the best smartphone you can buy under Rs. 40,000 in India? We discuss the company’s recently launched handset and what it has to offer on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Honor 90 5G Gets Jio eSIM Connectivity Support in India, No Word on Other Providers

Honor 90 5G was launched in India in September 2023. The phone comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset and a 5,000mAh battery with 30W wired SuperCharge technology support. The dual SIM-supported handset ships with Android 13-based Magic OS 7.1. Now, HTech CEO Madhav Sheth has announced that the handset is compatible with Jio eSIM connectivity in India. The company has yet to confirm whether the phone will eventually support eSIMs from other network providers in the country.

In a post on X, Sheth confirmed that the Honor 90 5G is now compatible with Jio eSIM in India. In one of the images he shared, we see that an eSIM can be used alongside a physical SIM on the handset. The phone appears to be running on a 4G Jio network, in the image.

It is unclear whether the eSIM support extended to the Honor 90 5G also covers 5G connectivity. The company has also not clarified if it plans to partner with other telecom operators in India to extend eSIM support to other providers.

At launch, the Honor 90 5G was priced at Rs. 37,999 and Rs. 39,999 for its 8GB + 256GB and 12GB + 512GB RAM and storage variants, respectively. Currently, it can be bought for as low as Rs. 28,999 in the ongoing Amazon Great Republic Day Sale 2024. The Amazon sale ends January 19.

The Honor 90 5G is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC and has a 5,000mAh battery with 30W wired fast charging support. The phone sports a 6.7-inch 1.5K AMOLED panel with 120Hz refresh rate. The triple rear camera system of the phone includes a 200-megapixel primary sensor, a 12-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera and a 2-megapixel shooter. The front camera, on the other hand, carries a 50-megapixel sensor.

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Airtel, Reliance Jio Likely to Start Charging for 5G Ending Unlimited 5G Data Offers

5G services began rolling out in India in October 2022. Reliance Jio and Airtel, two of the country’s leading telecom operators, were the first to offer 5G services to their customers. They have over 125 million 5G subscribers between them. The companies have been offering 5G connectivity at existing 4G rates and including unlimited 5G data with select plans. However, experts now suggest that the firms may soon stop their unlimited 5G offering and will likely increase 5G plan charges over the existing 4G plans.

An Economic Times report citing analysts suggests that Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel will discontinue their unlimited 5G data plans for customers and charge at least 5-10 percent more for 5G services compared to 4G beginning in the second half of 2024 to stimulate monetisation and revenue growth.

Jio and Airtel have been providing 5G connectivity at 4G rates, along with unlimited data plans, to entice existing subscribers to upgrade to the next-generation wireless broadband service for almost a year now, the report notes, adding that analysts predict this will soon change as Jio and Airtel prepare to roll out 5G services countrywide and focus monetisation as adoption levels rise. Notably, the number of 5G users in India is said to exceed 200 million by the end of 2024.

The report adds that industry experts predict that the two telecom firms will increase mobile charges by at least 20 percent in the September quarter of 2024 to increase their RoCE (return on capital employed) while simultaneously tackling investments in 5G and greater customer acquisition costs.

While Airtel and Jio’s purported 5G plans are likely to be 5-10 percent more expensive than the 4G ones, the network providers could include 30-40 percent more data in these bundles to promote usage, and also improve their market share in the meantime since Vodafone Idea (Vi), another leading telecom operator, is yet to debut 5G services in the country, the report added.

Samsung launched the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5 alongside the Galaxy Tab S9 series and Galaxy Watch 6 series at its first Galaxy Unpacked event in South Korea. We discuss the company’s new devices and more on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Jio May Soon Receive Regulatory Approval for Launch of Satellite Internet Services in India: Report

JioSpaceFiber — the upcoming satellite-based gigabit fibre service from Reliance Jio — could launch in India soon, according to a report. The telco has reportedly made all of the mandatory submissions to the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) and approval from the regulator will allow the company to launch its satellite communication services in the country. The telecom operator previously demonstrated its satcom technology at the 2023 India Mobile Congress last year and it could soon become the first satellite-based giga fibre Internet service in the country.

Citing people aware of the developments, The Economic Times reports that Jio could soon receive all of the required approvals and authorisations from IN-SPACe for the launch of the company’s satcom services in the country. In order to receive approval to deploy satellite services in India, operators have to get security clearances as well as approval from several ministries, according to the report.

Last year, the telco showed off its JioSpaceFiber technology at the India Mobile Congress. At the time the company said that it has already connected four remote locations across the country — Gir in Gujarat, Korba in Chattisgarh, Nabrangpur in Odisha, and ONGC-Jorhat in Assam — with its JioSpaceFiber satellite-based giga fibre Internet service.

In order to provide access to satellite-based Internet connectivity in India, Jio has partnered with Luxembourg-based satellite telecommunications network provider Société Européenne des Satellites (SES) for access to its medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites using SES’s O3b and new O3b mPOWER satellites.

Jio’s satcom services are expected to compete with Elon Musk-led Starlink, Eutelsat Group’s OneWeb, and Amazon’s Project Kuiper, firms that are also looking to launch their services in India. There’s no word from the company on plans to launch satellite Internet services in the country.

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Vodafone Idea and Elon Musk’s Starlink Not in Tie-Up Talks, Telecom Firm Clarifies

India’s Vodafone Idea is not in talks to tie up with billionaire Elon Musk’s satellite internet company Starlink, the telecom operator said on Tuesday, dashing hopes of a revival in the debt-ridden company that had sent its stock soaring.

The clarification came after Vodafone Ideas’ stock surged in the past two sessions on what business magazine BusinessWorld said were “markets betting” that Musk was looking to buy a stake in the company to help Starlink enter India.

“We would like to submit that the company is not in any such discussion with the named party. We are not aware of the basis of the said news item,” Vodafone Idea said in a statement on Tuesday, a day after the Bombay Stock Exchange, where its stock is listed, asked for a clarification on the report.

The BusinessWorld report was published on Friday after Vodafone Idea’s shares surged 21 percent. The stock jumped another 6 percent on Monday, rounding out its busiest sessions in about two years.

However, the stock fell more than 5 percent in heavy trading on Tuesday after the company’s clarification.

Starlink, Musk and SpaceX — Musk’s rocket company that owns Starlink — did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

Vodafone Idea has not reported a profit since it was formed in 2018 — through the merger of UK-based Vodafone’s Indian unit with Aditya Birla Group’s Idea Cellular — as it loses subscribers to Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries’ Jio.

Moreover, the Indian government owns roughly a third of Vodafone Idea after it converted into equity all the dues the company owed for using airwaves and spectrum.

Vodafone Idea’s financial woes make it an unattractive partner, said Karan Taurani, an analyst with Elara Capital.

“On one end it is struggling to raise more cash and on the other end they have a large debt to service,” Taurani said.

While Vodafone Idea does not have a satellite company, Bharti-backed OneWeb and Reliance’s Jio Satellite Communications have regulatory clearance to operate in India.

UK-based Vodafone has partnered with Starlink’s rival, Amazon.com’s Kuiper for internet networks in Europe and Africa. Kuiper does not operate in India.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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Reliance Jio, IIT Bombay Working on ‘Bharat GPT,’ Telecom Giant to Launch a TV OS: Report

Telecom giant Reliance Jio is reportedly working on generative AI and plans to launch a ‘Bharat GPT’ programme along the lines of large language model-based AI chatbots like ChatGPT. The company has reportedly partnered up with Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay to develop an India-first AI programme. Jio, which now offers products and services across the digital sector, including steaming apps and Internet services, is also said to be working on an operating system for televisions.

According to a report by the Press Trust of India, Reliance Jio Infocomm chairman Akash Ambani said Wednesday that the company would bring a ‘Bharat GPT’ programme to market in collaboration with IIT-B. Ambani, however, did not specify a launch timeline for its AI endeavour.

Speaking at IIT Bombay’s annual techfest, Ambani said that the coming years would be defined by generative AI applications. The Jio chairman said that AI would be integrated across the company’s various products and offerings. “We are working very hard to launch AI not only as a vertical inside our organisation, but also horizontally across all our sectors,” the report quoted him as saying.

Additionally, Jio also plans to introduce an operating system for televisions and has been working on the same for a while. A TV OS would be in line with Jio’s set-top box and television apps services. “We have been working on our own OS for a while now for the TVs and we are comprehensively thinking about how to launch it,” Ambani was quoted as saying in the report.

Back in September, Reliance and chip giant Nvidia announced a partnership to build language models, generative AI apps and cloud infrastructure platform for AI development in the South Asian region. “Reliance will create AI applications and services for their 450 million Jio (telecom) customers and provide energy-efficient AI infrastructure to scientists, developers and startups across India,” Nvidia had reportedly said at the time.

Earlier this year, Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani had said that the company intended to develop India-specific AI models and AI-powered solutions across domains. Calling artificial intelligence the most exciting frontier of growth for Jio, Ambani had promised “AI to everyone, everywhere.”

In the past year, AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot have exploded in popularity, leading to a glut of AI-driven applications and and investment rush in the sector. Several Indian startups and firms have since worked to develop their own India-focussed AI apps and services.

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Jio Happy New Year 2024 Offer Brings Prepaid Recharge Plan With Extra Validity Benefits: Details

Jio has announced the “Happy New Year Offer 2024” for its prepaid users in India. Notably, the telecom operator has refreshed one of the company’s older annual prepaid plans. The New Year offer provides the benefit of added 24 days of validity, which is complementary to its regular 365 days of validity. This is currently extended only to the Rs. 2,999 plan. Benefits offered in the plan remain the same, but with the increased validity period, the per-day cost is reduced for customers.

The Reliance-owned network service provider explained in a Terms and Conditions page on its website that the long-term prepaid recharge plan of Rs. 2,999 will come with a 24-day validity voucher which will allow the plan to continue for an additional 24 days after its usual 365-day validity runs out, resulting in a total of 389 days of validity. The plan can be purchased through Jio’s prepaid plan page on its website or via the MyJio application.

The benefits extended during those 24 additional days will remain the same as the ones available during the rest of the plan’s validity. Only the daily cost incurred by the customer will effectively come down from Rs. 8.21 per day to Rs. 7.70 per day. With this plan, users will have access to 2.5GB of 4G data per day for every day of the previously mentioned 389 days.

Customers who choose to buy this Rs. 2,999 prepaid plan will enjoy unlimited voice calls and 100 free SMS per day. This plan also allows unlimited 5G data, although 5G accessibility varies by region. Users within the 5G network coverage area will be able to access this.

This prepaid plan includes access to JioTV, JioCinema, and JioCloud as well. Notably, the JioCinema subscription included with this package is not the JioCinema Premium subscription. Users will have to buy it independently for Rs. 1,499 via the JioCinema portal. The JioTV Premium subscription offers access to up to 14 different OTT apps under a single plan. 

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Jio Launches JioTV Premium Plans Starting at Rs. 398 With 14 OTT Subscriptions

Jio has announced a new JioTV Premium subscription in India with access to up to 14 different OTT apps under a single plan. The telecom operator has also unveiled three new prepaid plans with JioTV Premium subscriptions. The new monthly, quarterly and annual plans starting at Rs. 398 bring unlimited data, voice, and SMS benefits. Besides calls and SMS, users can access Disney+ Hotstar, Amazon Prime Video, Sony Liv, Zee5 and more through the JioTV app with these prepaid recharge plans. New plans will be available for customers starting today (December 15). All plans offer 2GB of data per day alongside 100 SMS messages.

Jio’s new Rs. 398, Rs. 1,198 and Rs. 4,498 plans have a validity of 28 days, 84 days and 365 days, respectively. They are bundled with unlimited data, voice, SMS benefits and access to 14 OTT platforms with a single subscription. OTT apps including JioCinema Premium, Disney+ Hotstar, Sony Liv, Zee5, Amazon Prime Video (Mobile Edition), Lionsgate Play, Discovery+, Docubay, SunNXT, Hoichoi, Planet Marathi, Chaupal, EpicOn, and Kanccha Lannka can be used with JioTV Premium subscription.

The Rs. 398 plan offers access to 12 OTT apps, while the Rs. 1,198 and Rs. 4,498 plans provide access to 14 OTT apps. Jio has come up with an EMI payment option for the one-year recharge plan. All three prepaid plans offer unlimited voice calls, 100 SMS messages on a daily basis, and 2GB of daily data. The JioTV Premium is exclusive to Jio SIM users. Further, there is a Rs. 148 data add-on voucher bundled with 10GB of data and JioTV Premium (12 OTTs) for 28 days.

JioTV Premium plans will be available for purchase starting from December 16. After recharging any JioTV Premium Plan users can sign in to the JioTV app with the same Jio mobile number to use the premium OTT content.

The JioCinema Premium subscription will be available through coupon on the user’s MyJio coupon section and it can be redeemed to access premium content. The Amazon Prime Video (mobile edition) subscription can be activated from the MyJio App. The Disney+Hotstar can be directly activated by logging in to the app using the same registered mobile number of JioTV Premium.

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