Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio joined hands on telecom infrastructure

On 10 December 2013 Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, owned by Mukesh Ambani, signed a telecom infrastructure-sharing accord with Bharti Airtel Ltd led by Sunil Mittal, India’s biggest mobile phone services provider. Thus was ended the rivalry between two of India’s biggest business groups. The significant tie up may lead to cost savings to a large extent.

Ambani is venturing into the telecom business through Reliance Jio, a unit of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL). The venture is expected to lead to the formation of the nation’s largest 4G-based wireless communications service next year.

The agreement aims to avoid duplication of infrastructure and will permit Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio to utilize each other’s infrastructure including their optic fiber network, under-sea cables, wireless towers and Internet broadband services.

About 4G
It is the fourth generation of mobile communication technology which is also called International Mobile Telecommunication – Advanced (IMT-A).

A 4G mobile communication technology, as defined by International Telecommunication Union (ITU), must fulfill following conditions:
• The cellular technology must be based on an all-IP packet switched network.
• It should have peak data rates of up to approximately 100 Megabit per seconds for high mobility such as mobile access and up to approximately 1 Gigabit per seconds for low mobility such as nomadic/local wireless access.
• It should be able to dynamically share and use the network resources to support more simultaneous users per cell.
• It should be using scalable channel bandwidths of 5–20 MHz, optionally up to 40 MHz.
• The ability to offer high quality of service for next generation multimedia support.

4G services provide data speeds that are 10 times faster than currently available 3G. This makes it the fastest wireless internet service. Besides, it can solve the problem of last mile connectivity. Since 4G data can move faster, it can reach more people. Thus even the rural areas at the last leg of providing telecommunication services can be reached.

Airtel was the first to launch 4G services in India in Kolkata circle on 10 April 2012.

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