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India's Richest Man Launches 4G LTE Network, Offers Unlimited Free Voice Calls (mashable.com)

Posted by msmash on from the wow dept.

An anonymous reader writes: India's biggest industrial house has launched its 4G LTE network and is offering unlimited free voice calls forever to anyone who signs up for its services. It is also claiming to offer the cheapest 4G LTE data rates in the world. After numerous delays and months of testing, India's richest man, Mukesh Ambani, today announced the commercial availability of Reliance Jio's mobile services. The conglomerate's Jio services, which users can avail starting Sept. 5, is offering a nation-wide LTE network coverage, coupled with free voice plans and best data tariff Indian consumers have ever seen. Jio's network is being touted as the largest 4G LTE deployment anywhere in the world, Ambani said, adding that the network is also "future proof" with baked in support for upcoming 5G and 6G network technologies. Jio's 4G coverage is available in 18,000 cities in the country, and over 200,000 remote areas. The company aims to extend the coverage to 90 percent of India's population by next year. Reliance Industries has invested $22 billion in Jio, and has been working on the roll-out for last five years.

2 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Not free by sjbe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    India's biggest industrial house has launched its 4G LTE network and is offering unlimited free voice calls forever to anyone who signs up for its services.

    If there is a monthly fee for the service then they aren't free. On a unit cost basis (per call) it might be cheap if someone makes a lot of calls but it isn't free. If the network has enough bandwidth the marginal cost of allowing additional calls within the network is a good approximation of zero. There is an upper cap to the amount of bandwidth a single phone can use for voice calling so once the network exceeds that capability there really is no reason to bill by the minute anymore.

    Ambani said, adding that the network is also "future proof" with baked in support for upcoming 5G and 6G network technologies.

    Sounds like puffery to me.

  2. Re:"Baked in" before they decide on recipe? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The 5G spec isn't stable yet, and isn't the 6G spec just a glint in someone's eye at this point? Not sure how he could have "baked in" support for them yet ...

    This could just mean that the backhaul to the towers will support the higher data rates.