The launch was imminent as Reliance was conducting its 4G field trial since November 2010 on its campus, further the company had said that it will be launching trials in July last year and this phase would be extended from the end of 2014 to early 2015. Airtel and Vodafone had long anticipated this move from Reliance and hence they had started investing additional funds to strengthen the infrastructure and increase its coverage. In fact in an interview with Livemint, Sunil Mittal, the chairman of Bharti Airtel had said that Mukesh Ambani will shake up the telecom industry with the $15-Billion 4G wireless service. Reliance Industries had said earlier in October earning reports that it will be ramping up its beta program and the actual operations are set to begin in the early 2016. Also read: All you need to know about Reliance Jio It also seems that Bollywood stars including Shahrukh Khan have also been invited to the event and the event is most likely to be followed by the Jio brand launch as well. Reliance Jio is expected to poach the premium customers using Airtel and Vodafone’s 4G services and although it looks like a much simple task, in reality, it is daunting. Ariel’s latest investment of Rs 60,000 Crore and the Vodafone’s Rs 13,000 crore means that both the telecom operators are armed with upgraded infrastructure and support to tackle the Jio. Additionally, the Reliance Jio uses the Voice over LTE (VoLTE) which is automatically considered as a better option to the traditional calls, but there aren’t enough handsets in the country which already support VoLTE. The invite is the only pointer at the upcoming launch of Reliance Jio and as of now we have not received any sorts of official communication from the company, in all likelihood the dates might change but the fact that the launch is nearing is something that should interest us. Update: The event is restricted to the employees of Reliance and their immediate families. We hear that the Reliance employees will be given the benefit of trying out the Jio service before others. Whatever that means, expect this launch to be a placeholder event with actual launch happening in early 2016.
