Reliance Jio to launch in 'coming months', Ambani assures shareholders

Assuring shareholders that significant progress had been made in erecting the infrastructure for Reliance Jio, along with some 1.5 million test users, Chairman Mukesh Ambani has, without specifying a date, said the commercial launch will happen in the “coming months”. “During the year, Reliance Jio moved towards completion of its network infrastructure as well as business services and platforms. We on-boarded over 1.5 million test users, who have been using the services extensively,” Ambani said in the company’s annual report for 2015-16. “This has enabled testing of the network, user applications and services and business platforms. The feedback from test users is extremely encouraging. The test programme will be progressively upgraded into commercial operations in the coming months.” Shareholders were also told that Jio is now present in all the 29 states of India with a direct physical presence in more than 18,000 urban and rural towns and over 150,000 villages. The chairman said Reliance Industries invested over Rs 112,000 crore ($17 billion) in its various businesses operations during 2015-16, which he claimed was the highest-ever by any corporate in India in creating growth engines for the future. “As we near the end of our largest capital expenditure cycle, we are focused on ensuring a smooth start-up and stabilisation of new growth platforms across hydrocarbon and consumer businesses,” he said, adding the record profit of $4.2 billion against a gloomy environment was laudable. He particularly mentioned that the company’s gross refining margins – the difference between the crude oil price and the value of petroleum products coming out of a refinery – stood at $10.8 pr barrel in 2015-16, was the highest in seven years and outperformed the Singapore benchmark. The company said the annual shareholders’ meeting will be held here on Sep 1 at 11 a.m. at Birla Matushri Sabhagar auditorium. IANS Disclaimer: Jio is owned by Reliance Industries which also owns Network18, the publisher of Firstpost.com and tech2