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Our energy & materials businesses constitute a strong platform to reach an earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of Rs 100,000 crore in next few years.Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, RIL
In line with Ambani’s plan of making Jio’s 4G services affordable and available all over India, JioPhones will be be given free of cost to all its service customers, he said. However, the handset will come with a one-time security deposit of Rs 1,500 refundable after three years, he added.
The phones will be available for user testing in beta from August 15 and for pre-booking from August 24. The company wants to roll out 50 lakh handsets every week, he added. Moreover, the devices will me made in India from the last quarter of 2017.
JioPhone's will also have a feature that allows users to connect it to TV sets and stream content. Along with this, users can also opt for a Jio Dhan Dhan Dhan pack for Rs 309 per month, that would allow users to watch almost 3-4 hours of videos daily, of their choice, on a large screen.
The TV offering could allow Jio to potentially rival cable, DTH service providers such as Dish TV India, Sun TV and Hathway.
“Voice will always be free” on a JioPhone, said Ambani. He went on to announce “digital freedom” on JioPhones since August 15 with unlimited data.
The phones will come with unlimited 4G data, only on the phone, for Rs 153 per month. The data would otherwise cost Rs 4,000 - 5,000 on other handsets, he added.
“With this, I am putting an end to unaffordable data forever”, he said.
He also announced a weekly plan for Rs 54 and a two-day plan for Rs 24 to make the services more accessible among masses.
The company will introduce an NFC support feature for JioPhone user on a later date, allowing them to connect their bank accounts, Jan Dhan accounts and UPI accounts with the phone. The feature will be uploaded on the phone through a software update, said Mukesh Ambani’s son Akash Ambani.
The phone includes:
Jio will cover over 99 percent of the country’s population in the next one year.Mukesh Ambani, Chairman & MD, Reliance Industries
"Jio has broken one record after another," Ambani said, speaking about the lastest telecom entrant in India. The network has added seven users per second for every day since its launch, he claimed, amounting to 125 million customers today.
Data consumption in India has grown from 20 crore GB per month to 120 crore GB after Jio's entry, and has been multiplying ever since, he said. The country has now taken over China and U.S. when it comes to data consumption, he added.
Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani has begun his address to company shareholders at the 40th annual general meeting since its initial public offer.
After clubbing its 4G LTE services with its LYF smartphones in December last year, Reliance Industries may bundle the upcoming feature phones with its Reliance Jio services. The move would allow the telecom company to acquire more data customers. Data is the only paid service under Jio after Mukesh Ambani announced free voice calls, messaging and roaming services since the launch of the network in September last year.
The company, however, has not made any comments regarding the clubbing of feature phones and its telecom services.
Here are the key expectations from the AGM:
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