Reliance Jio records 44% rise in 4G data usage

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (Reliance Jio) has an average monthly consumption per user is in excess of 26 GB and is increasing rapidly, according to a Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL)'s Q1 FY17 financial report.

This is an increase of 44.4% rise in data usage in from April 2016 where it stated that average monthly consumption was 18 GB per month, according to a report by a leading daily.

This is several times higher than the average data usage currently in India which is at 753 MB per month through 3G data, while globally it is in the range of 800 MB to 1 GB per month, according to Nokia MBiT study released in March 2016.

It also said that Reliance Jio's average voice usage per month is over 355 minutes from 250 minutes in the quarter ending March 2016. This is a major rise in data as well as voice usage by users of Reliance Jio.

Reliance Jio now has over 1.5 million test users on its network just over seven month since its test launch. The test program will be progressively upgraded into commercial operations in coming months, it said.

While the company has not given an official date for the launch of Reliance Jio, media reports suggest their 4G service could be available to all by as early as August.

Currently the Reliance 4G service is available to all Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) employees and has been extended to those using its LYF smartphones.

Reliance's LYF 4G smartphone devices have registered sales of more than 2 million in the few months. It is being distributed via the large Reliance Retail device distribution network which operates 3,383 stores across 679 cities.

RJIL has joined some of the leading global telecom operators like China Unicom, China Mobile, China Telecom, Singtel, T­Mobile US, Telefonica and Axiata Group for an initiative for a universal Rich Communications Services (RCS) profile worldwide, it said. This global initiativewill provide a common universal profile which will enable these mobile operators to deploy an interoperable.