ITV

Category: Telecom

  • Reliance Jio declares readiness for 4G launch; imports IPTV STBs

    Reliance Jio declares readiness for 4G launch; imports IPTV STBs

    MUMBAI: The Reliance Jio juggernaut is getting ready to enter the next phase. According to the Q1 2017 presentation Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) made to investors over the weekend, Relaince Jio’s Preview Offer for its 4G LTE services tests phase is doing very well.

    Reliance Jio officials announced that the company is ready to roll them out nationally, apart from four circles (these will take six to eight weeks) which were awarded to it on 6 July.

    It said that its network is available over 18,000 cities and more than 200,000 villages in the 2300 MHz/1800 MHz band.

    The company stated that its JioLyf Preview Offer is now being expanded and has attracted 1.5 million plus users to it. Each subscriber is consuming 26GB and speaking for about 355 minutes each month.

    Reliance Jio revealed that there has been a strong uptake of all the services it has been offering, considering the humungous data consumption. Among the ones that are popular is Jio Play offering 300+ channel (30 of them HD) across 15 languages in 10 genres, offering seven day catch up TV with pause and play and personalization features. The others that are gaining in popularity are JioOnDemand, (100,000 hours of HD-ad free movies and trailers), JioBeats (million plus songs in 20 different languages), JioXpresNews (500 plus content publishers) and JioMags (5,000 magazine plus issues across 15 categories and 10 languages).

    According to the RIL presentation, the company has set up a 100,000 strong retailer base to sell its LYF devices, which include Flame, Wind, Water and Earth priced between Rs 2,999 and 19,999. Another 500,000 outlets for SIM and recharge sales have been signed up.

    Last week Reliance Jio extended its Preview Offer to select Samsung Galaxy Phone users and it is now expected to allow IPhone 6, and 6S users to be able to sign up for it too by next week.

    Observers expect Reliance Jio to levy a data usage fee much lower than the 0.5 p per 10 kb – that has been talked about so far – when it launches. A commercial launch date that is being talked about is 15 August.

    Additionally Reliance Jio has also imported 15,000 IPTV set top boxes from Vietnam earlier this month, according to reports.

    The boxes reportedly have a price tag of Rs 5,500 and are an indicator that the company is possibly readying to introduce its fibre to the home services (FTTH) and could start delivering IPTV to customers in the not too distand future. All that subscribers have to do is download the JioPlay and JioOnDemand Apps to tune into content that could rival that offered by many other cable operators and DTH operators. Reliance Jio already has a national MSO licence. Pricing plans have not been revealed as yet, but expect them to be competitive.

    RIL reported a turnover of Rs 71,451 crore with a net profit of Rs 7,113 crore. in Q12017.

  • Q1-17: Reliance Retail revenue up 46 percent; Jio subscriber base is 15 lakh

    Q1-17: Reliance Retail revenue up 46 percent; Jio subscriber base is 15 lakh

    BENGALURU: The Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) organized retail segment – Reliance Retail,  continued its growth momentum and profitability in the quarter ended 30 June 2106 (Q1-17, current quarter). RIL’s organised retail segment contributes to less than 1 percent to gross revenues and yet, in terms of sheer numbers is bigger than most of other major players in the organised retail space in India. 

    Reliance Retail revenue for Q1-17 grew 45.8 percent year-over-year (y-o-y) to Rs 6,666 crore from Rs 4,572 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter (Q1-16). Quarter-over-quarter (q-o-q), the retail segment’s revenue also grew at double digits – a remarkable 18.6 percent from Rs 5,646 crore in the immediate trailing quarter (Q4-16). RIL says that the increase in turnover was led by growth in digital, fashion & lifestyle and petroleum products.

    Note: The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR). The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:
    (a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.
    (b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.

    Reliance Retail reported segment EBIT (Earnings before interest and taxes) of Rs 148 crore (2.2 percent EBIT margin), 31 percent higher y-o-y as compared to Rs 113 crore (2.5 percent EBIT margin) and 15.6 percent higher q-o-q than Rs 128 crore (2.3 percent EBIT margin).

    Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL), a subsidiary of RIL, extended its trial services to all LYF devices users under the Jio LYF preview offer. (LYF is the mobile handset brand of Reliance Retail) This has enabled testing of all the services to customers outside the initial set of test users. RJIL now has over 15 lakh test users on its network claims an RIL release. The average monthly consumption per user is in excess of 26 GB and is increasing rapidly. Average voice usage per month is over 355 minutes. The test program will be progressively upgraded into commercial operations in coming months says RIL.

    RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said, “At Reliance Jio, we have built an entire ecosystem that will allow Indians to live the digital life to the fullest. This transformational ecosystem consists of broadband connectivity, devices and powerful applications and services which will be available to every consumer in India.”

    RIL numbers

    For Q1-17, RIL achieved a turnover of Rs 71,451 crore ($ 10.6 billion), a decrease of 13.4 percent, as compared to Rs 82,509 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. The company says that decline in revenue was led by the 26 percent y-o-y decline in benchmark (Brent) oil price which averaged at $ 45.6/bbl (bbl is oil barrel) in Q1-17 as compared to $ 61.9/bbl in the corresponding period of the previous year. Impact of lower prices was partially offset by higher volumes in refining and petrochemicals segments.

    Profit after tax including exceptional items was higher by 18.1 percent at Rs 7,113 crore ($ 1.1 billion) as against Rs 6,024 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

    Said Ambani, ““At Reliance, we continued to harness the power of our integrated energy and materials business portfolio. We maintained our earnings growth trajectory during this quarter, as the world grappled with new dimensions of economic uncertainty. Though regional refining margins trended downwards, our high-conversion refining system was able to take advantage of higher margins on middle distillates and wider discounts on sour crude oils. Our refining business delivered another record performance and achieved industry leading GRM (gross refining margin). Our petrochemicals business has a wide product portfolio, superior feedstock linkages and serves high-growth end-markets in India. As a result, we achieved yet another quarter of margin expansion in petrochemicals business and delivered EBIT growth of more than 20.5 percent y-o-y.”

  • Q1-17: Reliance Retail revenue up 46 percent; Jio subscriber base is 15 lakh

    Q1-17: Reliance Retail revenue up 46 percent; Jio subscriber base is 15 lakh

    BENGALURU: The Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) organized retail segment – Reliance Retail,  continued its growth momentum and profitability in the quarter ended 30 June 2106 (Q1-17, current quarter). RIL’s organised retail segment contributes to less than 1 percent to gross revenues and yet, in terms of sheer numbers is bigger than most of other major players in the organised retail space in India. 

    Reliance Retail revenue for Q1-17 grew 45.8 percent year-over-year (y-o-y) to Rs 6,666 crore from Rs 4,572 crore in the corresponding year ago quarter (Q1-16). Quarter-over-quarter (q-o-q), the retail segment’s revenue also grew at double digits – a remarkable 18.6 percent from Rs 5,646 crore in the immediate trailing quarter (Q4-16). RIL says that the increase in turnover was led by growth in digital, fashion & lifestyle and petroleum products.

    Note: The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR). The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:
    (a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.
    (b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.

    Reliance Retail reported segment EBIT (Earnings before interest and taxes) of Rs 148 crore (2.2 percent EBIT margin), 31 percent higher y-o-y as compared to Rs 113 crore (2.5 percent EBIT margin) and 15.6 percent higher q-o-q than Rs 128 crore (2.3 percent EBIT margin).

    Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL), a subsidiary of RIL, extended its trial services to all LYF devices users under the Jio LYF preview offer. (LYF is the mobile handset brand of Reliance Retail) This has enabled testing of all the services to customers outside the initial set of test users. RJIL now has over 15 lakh test users on its network claims an RIL release. The average monthly consumption per user is in excess of 26 GB and is increasing rapidly. Average voice usage per month is over 355 minutes. The test program will be progressively upgraded into commercial operations in coming months says RIL.

    RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani said, “At Reliance Jio, we have built an entire ecosystem that will allow Indians to live the digital life to the fullest. This transformational ecosystem consists of broadband connectivity, devices and powerful applications and services which will be available to every consumer in India.”

    RIL numbers

    For Q1-17, RIL achieved a turnover of Rs 71,451 crore ($ 10.6 billion), a decrease of 13.4 percent, as compared to Rs 82,509 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. The company says that decline in revenue was led by the 26 percent y-o-y decline in benchmark (Brent) oil price which averaged at $ 45.6/bbl (bbl is oil barrel) in Q1-17 as compared to $ 61.9/bbl in the corresponding period of the previous year. Impact of lower prices was partially offset by higher volumes in refining and petrochemicals segments.

    Profit after tax including exceptional items was higher by 18.1 percent at Rs 7,113 crore ($ 1.1 billion) as against Rs 6,024 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

    Said Ambani, ““At Reliance, we continued to harness the power of our integrated energy and materials business portfolio. We maintained our earnings growth trajectory during this quarter, as the world grappled with new dimensions of economic uncertainty. Though regional refining margins trended downwards, our high-conversion refining system was able to take advantage of higher margins on middle distillates and wider discounts on sour crude oils. Our refining business delivered another record performance and achieved industry leading GRM (gross refining margin). Our petrochemicals business has a wide product portfolio, superior feedstock linkages and serves high-growth end-markets in India. As a result, we achieved yet another quarter of margin expansion in petrochemicals business and delivered EBIT growth of more than 20.5 percent y-o-y.”

  • RCom proposal for setting up subsidiary telecom company rejected

    RCom proposal for setting up subsidiary telecom company rejected

    NEW DELHI: The Government has rejected the proposal by Flag Telecom Singapore Pte Limited, Singapore, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications (RCOM), for setting up a 100 percent subsidiary telecom company. The company was yet to be incorporated, an official Finance Ministry release said.

    Meanwhile following recommendations of the Foreign Investments Promotion Board, the Ministry deferred a decision relating to You Broadband India Limited post facto seeking approval for acquisition of 9,79,875 equity shares of its downstream company Digital Outsourcing Private Limited (DOPL) in lieu of issue of 20,58,759 equity shares to its resident shareholders by way of swap of shares.

    It also deferred approval to Tikona Digital Networks Pvt Ltd for the issuance of CCDs thereby increasing foreign equity to 76.73 percent.

    The Ministry approved a proposal by Macmillan Publishers International Ltd, UK for foreign investment of up to 100 percent in a new company (‘New Co.)’, proposed to be incorporated in India in the publishing sector. This involved FDI amounting to Rs 28.2 crore.

  • RCom proposal for setting up subsidiary telecom company rejected

    RCom proposal for setting up subsidiary telecom company rejected

    NEW DELHI: The Government has rejected the proposal by Flag Telecom Singapore Pte Limited, Singapore, an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Communications (RCOM), for setting up a 100 percent subsidiary telecom company. The company was yet to be incorporated, an official Finance Ministry release said.

    Meanwhile following recommendations of the Foreign Investments Promotion Board, the Ministry deferred a decision relating to You Broadband India Limited post facto seeking approval for acquisition of 9,79,875 equity shares of its downstream company Digital Outsourcing Private Limited (DOPL) in lieu of issue of 20,58,759 equity shares to its resident shareholders by way of swap of shares.

    It also deferred approval to Tikona Digital Networks Pvt Ltd for the issuance of CCDs thereby increasing foreign equity to 76.73 percent.

    The Ministry approved a proposal by Macmillan Publishers International Ltd, UK for foreign investment of up to 100 percent in a new company (‘New Co.)’, proposed to be incorporated in India in the publishing sector. This involved FDI amounting to Rs 28.2 crore.

  • Sub Rs 3K LYF 4G smartphones

    Sub Rs 3K LYF 4G smartphones

    MUMBAI: Bringing Mukesh Ambani’s vision of digitising the entire country to get its people to use the internet a step closer to fruition, LYF Smartphone+, the True 4G smartphone brand from Reliance Retail, has pushed the envelope of affordability in the Indian smartphone space by announcing a very aggressive price of Rs. 2999 on four of its Flame models – Flame 3, Flame 4, Flame 5 and Flame 6. This move also resonates with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a digitally-connected India says a Reliance Retail press release.

    The Indian device ecosystem always featured a clear line of distinction between smartphone users and featurephone users with price acting as a major barrier. With the introduction of 4G smartphones at a price which rivals that of featurephones, LYF has made it easy for featurephone users to upgrade to smartphones.

    Like all LYF devices, the Flame series too offers smartphones equipped with VoLTE, or voice over LTE — a technology that enables the device to provide advanced features such as faster call setup, high-definition (HD) voice and video calling, seamless switching between voice and video calls and multi-party conferencing on a 4G LTE network.

    The dual-SIM slots, a characteristic feature of every Flame phone, allow users to simultaneously use a 4G SIM in either of the slots. Further, all LYF devices come with a free Jio preview offer, under which every user buying a LYF phone gets access to the entire range of Jio services, Flame series provides a platform for users to migrate from older networks such as 2G or 3G to the more advanced 4G ecosystem. In addition to this, Flame series also offer smart aesthetic features and superior hardware technology claims the Reliance Retail release.

    With all the models being equipped with a primary camera and also a front camera, or a selfie-shooter, Flame series allows users to shoot images of all types with a range of photography features such as HDR, panorama, face detection, smile shutter, burst mode, slow motion video, metering, white balance, anti-banding and ISO. 

    Will the competition, especially the Chinese smartphone manufacturers for whom India is a focus market, react with aggressive price points? Only time can tell. The Indian consumer will definitely benefit with lower priced smartphones, bringing closer the mission of Indian political and industry leaders to have every Indian connected.

    Also read:

    Reliance Retail launches LYF Wind 5 smartphone

    Reliance Jio’s mid-segment LYF Water 5 smartphone launches on Amazon

    Reliance Jio embarks 4G trail service for public

  • Sub Rs 3K LYF 4G smartphones

    Sub Rs 3K LYF 4G smartphones

    MUMBAI: Bringing Mukesh Ambani’s vision of digitising the entire country to get its people to use the internet a step closer to fruition, LYF Smartphone+, the True 4G smartphone brand from Reliance Retail, has pushed the envelope of affordability in the Indian smartphone space by announcing a very aggressive price of Rs. 2999 on four of its Flame models – Flame 3, Flame 4, Flame 5 and Flame 6. This move also resonates with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a digitally-connected India says a Reliance Retail press release.

    The Indian device ecosystem always featured a clear line of distinction between smartphone users and featurephone users with price acting as a major barrier. With the introduction of 4G smartphones at a price which rivals that of featurephones, LYF has made it easy for featurephone users to upgrade to smartphones.

    Like all LYF devices, the Flame series too offers smartphones equipped with VoLTE, or voice over LTE — a technology that enables the device to provide advanced features such as faster call setup, high-definition (HD) voice and video calling, seamless switching between voice and video calls and multi-party conferencing on a 4G LTE network.

    The dual-SIM slots, a characteristic feature of every Flame phone, allow users to simultaneously use a 4G SIM in either of the slots. Further, all LYF devices come with a free Jio preview offer, under which every user buying a LYF phone gets access to the entire range of Jio services, Flame series provides a platform for users to migrate from older networks such as 2G or 3G to the more advanced 4G ecosystem. In addition to this, Flame series also offer smart aesthetic features and superior hardware technology claims the Reliance Retail release.

    With all the models being equipped with a primary camera and also a front camera, or a selfie-shooter, Flame series allows users to shoot images of all types with a range of photography features such as HDR, panorama, face detection, smile shutter, burst mode, slow motion video, metering, white balance, anti-banding and ISO. 

    Will the competition, especially the Chinese smartphone manufacturers for whom India is a focus market, react with aggressive price points? Only time can tell. The Indian consumer will definitely benefit with lower priced smartphones, bringing closer the mission of Indian political and industry leaders to have every Indian connected.

    Also read:

    Reliance Retail launches LYF Wind 5 smartphone

    Reliance Jio’s mid-segment LYF Water 5 smartphone launches on Amazon

    Reliance Jio embarks 4G trail service for public

  • Tejinder Kalra is COO at Indus Towers

    Tejinder Kalra is COO at Indus Towers

    MUMBAI: Indian Telecom tower company Indus Towers announced the appointment of Tejinder Kalra as the chief operating officer (COO), as on 1 July 2016. With over 26 years of experience in the telecom and telecom services industry, Tejinder holds an extensive experience in strategy development, implementation and service delivery across geographies  says an Indus Towers release

    Indus Towers CEO Bimal Dayal said, “In line with Indus’ pursuit of building a strong leadership team for the future, I would like to announce appointment of Tejinder Kalra. His passion, strategic clarity and disciplined execution will help ensure that Indus Towers’ continues to deliver our best to our customers.”

    Tejinder joins Indus Towers from Nokia, where he was the Global Head for Bharti Business in his most recent role. He has worked with Nokia for over 13 years, and has been a pivotal part of their growth story. In his last role, he managed the end to end P&L ownership for Bharti Telecom business globally. He was also the Sub-Region Head for Central, East and Western Africa in an earlier role where he helped set-up Nokia’s Airtel operations in Africa.

    Tejinder has been associated with Reliance Infocomm, Satyam Infoway, Sprint RPG India amongst other organizations in the past. He has done his engineering from Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology and Executive Diploma in International Business from IIFT.

  • Tejinder Kalra is COO at Indus Towers

    Tejinder Kalra is COO at Indus Towers

    MUMBAI: Indian Telecom tower company Indus Towers announced the appointment of Tejinder Kalra as the chief operating officer (COO), as on 1 July 2016. With over 26 years of experience in the telecom and telecom services industry, Tejinder holds an extensive experience in strategy development, implementation and service delivery across geographies  says an Indus Towers release

    Indus Towers CEO Bimal Dayal said, “In line with Indus’ pursuit of building a strong leadership team for the future, I would like to announce appointment of Tejinder Kalra. His passion, strategic clarity and disciplined execution will help ensure that Indus Towers’ continues to deliver our best to our customers.”

    Tejinder joins Indus Towers from Nokia, where he was the Global Head for Bharti Business in his most recent role. He has worked with Nokia for over 13 years, and has been a pivotal part of their growth story. In his last role, he managed the end to end P&L ownership for Bharti Telecom business globally. He was also the Sub-Region Head for Central, East and Western Africa in an earlier role where he helped set-up Nokia’s Airtel operations in Africa.

    Tejinder has been associated with Reliance Infocomm, Satyam Infoway, Sprint RPG India amongst other organizations in the past. He has done his engineering from Thapar Institute of Engineering & Technology and Executive Diploma in International Business from IIFT.

  • Reliance Retail launches LYF Wind 5 smartphone

    Reliance Retail launches LYF Wind 5 smartphone

    BENGALURU: Reliance Retail added to its LYF brand of True 4G smartphones with the launch of value model Wind 5. With this launch, Reliance Retail has expanded its Elements Collection range The new smartphone is priced at Rs 6,599 and is available across the country says the company. With the launch of this device LYF Smartphone+ now has an extensive range of smartphones across price points it adds.

    The key features of Wind 5, as listed on the website, include:OTG Support – Pen Drive Compatible; 12.7cm (5) screen with HD; Camera with the 8MP rear and 5MP front camera; 64-bit quad-core processor with 1GB RAM and 8GB internal memory, 2000 mAh battery.

    Reliance Retail says that the Wind 5, like all phones from LYF, is equipped with VoLTE technology across all price points. It further claims that the Wind 5 will deliver a True 4G experience (TRUE 4G features are network and transmission dependent) to the user, which it says means HD voice and video calling, fast call setup time, seamless switch between voice and video calling, HD voice calling over WiFi, seamless switch of voice calls between WiFi and LTE, multiparty audio and video conferencing, and internet surfing while calling.

    LYF handsets are currently available in the price range of Rs 5,599 to Rs 19,499.