Jio 5G Service, Partnership with Google, Facebook & Future Plans

On July 15, 2020, Reliance Industries Limited, an Indian company owned by Mukesh Ambani ‘The richest man of India’ held its 43rd Annual meeting where the board discusses everything. The meeting was held through a live video conference and by using other visual and audio means. They talked about the huge investments that foreign industries did in their Jio Platforms Limited and also about Jio 5G service which is rolling out soon.

Jio Platforms Limited is a part of Reliance Industries Limited launched with a vision to provide all kinds of Wireless and Digital services in every corner of India at an affordable rate. They provide 4G Broadband services, Budget devices such as Phones, JioFiber Broadband Internet Service, and Jionet WiFi.

Read UK bans Huawei equipment for building 5G network.

Jio 5G and Other Services

At the conference, they talked about all the new services they are going to bestow upon Indian citizens at an affordable price. First is the 5G service which the company claims that they have already created a complete 5G solutions from scratch using 100% of their own homegrown technologies and solutions which will enable them to execute world-class 5G service successfully in India. But they said, they don’t want to limit themselves to just some parts, but all over India as a whole at once. Jio has already made a request to the DoT for the allocation of 5G spectrum to carry out field trials.

China has already executed a world-class 5G service in many cities including Shanghai, Guangzhou, etc. Many other cities from different countries like US, UK, South Korea also have a 5G Network and it is expanding at a fast pace. If Jio pulls this off in India, the whole country would take a huge leap on technology.  Read if 5G is better than 4G in various aspects!!

The company also revealed that they are working on a new Digital Education Platform which they call “Embibe”. Jio TV+ is another service that combines all the content likes shows, movies, and more from global 12 OTT players including Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, and others in one. So, this means one subscription will do all the work, no need to manage subscriptions from different OTT players at once. Jio 3D AR Glasses are next. They are going to be used for Virtual AR Meetings and will help businessmen and entrepreneurs while travelling and attending various meetings in a short schedule.

Read Samsung Vision for 6G and advanced services.

New Partnerships, Investments, And Plans

Now let’s talk about those huge investments and partnerships with leading foreign industries. First comes Google which has invested INR. 33,737 Crore in Jio Platforms for a 7.73 Stakes. Google and Jio are developing a custom Android-based OS which will be used in upcoming 3rd generations of Jio phones made in co-operation with Google. The phones will be entry-level budget smartphones. Basically, the idea is to make every Indian citizen an owner to this phone so that new opportunities will unlock and this will push innovation to drive growth for the new Indian economy.

Now comes Facebook which has invested INR. 43,574 Crore in Jio Platforms for a 9.9 Stake. Mark Zuckerberg and Jio are currently working in the new JioMart Service. An online home delivery service that works via Whatsapp, sounds cool. The introduction of this service in India would result in the growth of opportunities for millions of Indian small merchants and Kirana shops.

There are other companies that have invested in Jio Platforms and shared the vision. One of them is Qualcomm Ventures who invested INR. 730 Crore and Intel Capital invested INR. 1,894 Crore. The Public Investment Fund invested INR. 11,367 and L Catterton invested INR. 1,894 Crore. TPG Invested INR. 4,546 Crore and Adia invested INR. 5,683 Crore. Mubadala invested INR. 9,093 Crore. Silver Lake invested INR. 5,655 Crore. KKR invested INR. 11,367 Crore. General Atlantic invested INR. 6,598 Crore and Vista invested INR. 11,367 Crore.

Source: Jio Press Release

5G in Nepal, is it possible?

Reliance Limited is pulling this 5G future plan with the help of heavy foreign investments and the technology they have. They plan to provide 5G service with their own 100% homegrown technology which they built from scratch. So, this is their own 5G to say and this will raise the bar of technological standard and communication system in India. Now the question is, can Nepal bring 5G or any Telecommunication Service Providing company can bring 5G in Nepal in the way Jio is doing in India.

The answer is yes but there are many obstacles and challenges. First, we will need investors who are willing to fund research, manufacturing equipment, and the process, platform itself. Secondly, we will need manpower from ordinary labours to high-end business professionals to engineers with high skill, new ideas, and experience.

Regarding the telecom infrastructures, telcos can add the required ones on top of the existing resources while the state of the art equipment for such platform and 5G needs a huge investment. Similarly, they need to market the products very well to allure customers as per their requirement. All these will require a huge amount of funding and marketing efforts. Though we get it all right for the network and platform, if the marketing is not done correctly then everything will go in vain.

Conquering all these obstacles and challenges are not impossible but the state in which Nepal currently is, this may not be the right time to take any step. Of course, our country would take a huge step forward in technology and communication but 5G seems unlikely in Nepal, as of now. In the future, there is no option but to go for 5G but telcos need to invest hugely, with their own funds or from giants.