It was back in 2016 when Reliance Jio entered the telecom world in India and took the industry by storm — all thanks to the super-cheap 4G plans offered to the Indian folks who badly needed it. Again this year, at its Annual General Meeting (AGM 2019), Reliance Jio had a couple of announcements to make to extend its reach to various other segments of the technology world.
So here is a round-up of all the exciting and interesting things Jio founder Mukesh Ambani announced for users in India:
Reliance AGM 2019 Highlights
1. Jio and Microsoft Collaboration
Jio and Microsoft have partnered to provide cloud-based data centers for users in India. Data centers across the country will be powered by Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, allowing users to have control over their data. Azure services will be offered to Indian startups for free.
Jio plans to employ blockchain technology-based networks in India, for which it has even invested in around 14 startups. Jio will also enter the IoT world by 2020 in the form of its IoT service called NB IoT.
The collaboration will provide Office 365 and other business apps to various businesses in India. Additionally, Jio will use Microsoft’s voice and speech cognitive services for its devices with support for 13 languages and the option to add more.
2. Jio GigaFiber’s Commercial Availability
After being announced last year, Jio GigaFiber will finally be available for commercial use, starting September 5, 2019, in India. The fiber broadband service owned by Jio will start at Rs 700 and can go up to Rs 10,000 per month. It comes with an introductory offer wherein buyers can get a 4K/HD TV and a 4K set-top box for free.
For those who don’t know, the Jio GigaFiber is an umbrella service that will provide users with 4G internet services. This will include a landline for unlimited calls and a set-top box for access to TV channels.
The service is expected to deliver 100Mbps speed and can extend to around 1Gbps. Furthermore, JioFiber has been in the testing phase since its announcement and is claimed to have registered about 15 million users since its launch.
3. Jio Gaming
Included in JioFiber, Jio Gaming has been introduced to provide a gaming experience to users in India, as the gaming arena gains traction in the tech world. For this, Jio has collaborated with Gameloft, Tencent, Microsoft, and many more for gaming services.
However, there is still no word on how exactly this will work. Hence, we will keep you updated on this.
Also Read:Â Jio Gaming Console Reveal Was As Painful To Watch As It Was Embarrassing
4. Reliance Jio Postpaid Plan
To attract more users to its existing 340 million user base in India, Jio has launched its postpaid plan called the Jio Postpaid Plus plan. The new plan will be added to the existing cheap prepaid plans offered by the company. It will be interesting to see how users react to the new plan, given that the prepaid plan seems too good to be true already.
5. A $15 Billion Partnership
Jio has also collaborated with a startup dubbed Saudi Aramco, for which the former has sold 20% of stake to the startup for $15 billion. The partnership (which is the biggest foreign investment for Jio) will result in cloud data centers, apart from just oil and chemicals.
Here’s the Reliance AGM 2019 keynote for a better understanding:
Shri Mukesh D. Ambani addressing shareholders at 42nd Annual General Meeting of #RIL https://t.co/NmVIcbu17e
— Reliance Jio (@reliancejio) August 12, 2019
Also Read:Â 152 Fraud Jio Apps Found On Play Store Promising Free Data
