4G play: It's GSM biggies vs Reliance Jio once again

New Delhi: Reliance Jio Infocomm’s ambitious plans on 4G or fourth generation telephony launch could well upset the applecart of established GSM operators. Reliance Jio is reportedly planning an aggressive 4G launch - it can now also offer voice besides data - and recent media reports suggest it has sought a new number series with four crore new numbers from the Department of Telecom to begin services in each of the country’s 22 telecom circles.

A story in _Mail Today n_ewspaper on November 10 says these numbers have been sought - 40 lakh phone numbers for each metro city, 20 lakh each for A and B telecom circles and 10 lakh for every C circle. A Reliance spokesperson did not offer any comment on the quantum of numbers sought.

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These numbers mean Reliance Jio has an exclusive series all to itself and once these numbers are allotted, the company could well be in a position to offer a very well differentiated voice cum data offering at low prices and shake up competition. Reliance Jio is the only operator which bagged 4G spectrum in all the 22 circles and the only other company which has any 4G presence is Bharti, which is operating in four circles (Maharashtra, Kolkata, Punjab and Haryana).

[caption id=“attachment_1173603” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  . Voice business will only make sense if Reliance Jio were to tie up with existing voice operators to offer intra circle roaming etc. Reuters[/caption]

No wonder then that GSM companies are worried. On November 15th, Cellular Operators Association of India, which is the GSM industry lobby group, wrote a letter to the Telecom Secretary M F Farooqui where it sought two things:

1. As per the existing guideline, only one million numbers can be allotted per circle to any operator initially and this should be followed for Reliance Jio too. Additional codes should be allotted based on minimum VLR criteria of 40% later on only.
2. There is already a severe number crunch and Reliance Jio should not be allotted any exclusive number series

COAI’s members comprise GSM biggies like Bharti, Vodafone and Idea and the letter was written based on media reports about Reliance Jio seeking four crore numbers in an exlcusive number series. The letter has been reviewed by Firstpost.

A telecom industry veteran pointed out that if Reliance Jio is indeed allotted so many numbers in an exclusive series, it will get a platform to offer disruptive pricing and could well shake up the nascent 4G market.

COAI’s Rajan Mathews pointed out that the request for such a large set of numbers “is just another way of Reliance Jio to get backdoor entry to offer voice services when they had originally opted for ISP license only”.

He was referring to COAI’s long standing demand that Reliance Jio not be allowed to offer voice services since it had initially opted for only an ISP license and later came forward to get the Unified License without having to pay as much license fee as COAI’s own members.

Now, the ball is in DoT’s court - if it does decide to allot a large quantum of numbers to Reliance Jio, the company will certainly get a huge leg up in offering high speed data services to begin with, and perhaps voice later.

Firstpost has pointed out earlier as well that the debate over whether Reliance Jio will bring a tsunami to the voice market is a bit premature. What it could immediately do though is revolutionise the data market.

Kunal Bajaj of Analysis Mason had told Firstpost earlier that a Unified License will allow Reliance Jio to offer ‘fixed voice’ services which are like shared telephones similar to the ‘Tata walkies’ some years back. “This service will not use the traditional mobile phone but shared phones and will be similar to what Airtel is using for its 4G services.”

So in effect, Reliance Jio could be looking to revolutionlise the data market for now, not so much voice telephony. Bajaj had pointed out that no where in the world have voice services been offered on 2300 mhz spectrum band with LTE technology (this is what Reliance Jio has at present) and it is difficult to offer voice services continuously on this spectrum band. If the company were to indeed try offering voice, it will not be compatible with current handsets and newer devices will be needed. Voice business will only make sense if Reliance Jio were to tie up with existing voice operators to offer intra circle roaming etc.