News
Indian operator launches Website, reportedly begins selling smartphones in larger cities.
Reliance Jio has taken another small step towards launching its long-awaited 4G service.
The Indian operator has launched a Website where prospective customers can learn about the various Jio apps on offer and register their interest in signing up to the service.
Furthermore, the Economic Times reported late last week that Jio has begun selling 4G smartphones equipped with Jio SIM cards in the country’s major cities. The white-label handsets carry the Lyf brand launched by Jio’s sister company, Reliance Retail.
According to the ET, the SIMs come loaded with three months of free, unlimited data and 4,500 voice minutes.
In April, Reliance Jio revealed it has signed up half a million customers to the trial version of its LTE service. The service has been available to employees, partners and associates since December 2015.
However, a fully-fledged launch has still yet to take place, and even though Jio 4G SIMs have gone on limited sale, it does not amount to a commercial rollout.
According to the Economic Times, Jio is keen to complete the integration of spectrum it gained via sharing and trading deals with rival operator Reliance Communications.
Under the agreements, announced in January, RCom offered to sell to Jio 800-MHz spectrum in nine telecom circles, and share 800-MHz spectrum in a further 17.
Jio has previously said it plans to commercially launch its 4G service in fiscal 2016-2017, which began in April.
However, some have suggested that the launch could be pushed back as far as December.
