Jio partners Google to develop affordable 5G smartphones
Jul 15, 2020
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], July 15 : Reliance Jio has designed and developed a complete 5G solution from scratch and the same will be ready for trials as soon as 5G spectrum is available, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani said, adding that the company is partnering with Google to build a value-engineered Android-based smartphone Operation System.
With RIL announcing an indigenous build Operating System for its 5G solutions, it would mean bad news for Chinese telecom giant Huawei, which had eyes on setting up its infrastructure in India, the world's second-largest telecom market.
Ambani said the 5G solution can be ready for field development next year.
"Jio has designed and developed a complete 5G solution from scratch. It will be ready for trials as soon as 5G spectrum is available and can be ready for field deployment next year," Ambani said addressing the 43rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company virtually.
"Have sold 100 million Jio Phones till date. But there are many feature phone users waiting to upgrade to a conventional smart phone. We believe we can design an entry level 4G or even a 5G smart phone. We believe that we can design such a phone at a fraction of the current cost. Google and Jio are partnering to build a value-engineered Android based smartphone Operation System," he added.
This development came just after a day of the UK banning British companies from buying Huawei-produced equipment for 5G networks from the end of the year.
Ambani said that the company has fully kickstarted five accelerators of growth of digital connectivity including Mobile broadband, JioFiber, Jio's enterprise broadband, broadband for SMEs, and Jio's Narrowband Internet-of-Things (NBIoT).
"Jio Platforms, with over 20 start-up partners, has built world-class capabilities in technologies such as 4G, 5G, Cloud computing, Devices and OS, Big Data, AI, AR/VR, Blockchain, Natural Language Understanding & Computer Vision," Ambani said.
"In the next three years, Jio will connect half a billion mobile customers, a billion smart sensors and 50 million home and business establishments," he added.
He said that Jio's global-scale 4G and the fiber network is powered by several core software technologies and components. It is this capability and know-how that positions Jio on the cutting edge of another exciting frontier - 5G, Ambani added.
"Jio Platforms is conceived with the vision of developing original, captive intellectual property, using which we can demonstrate transformative power of technology across multiple ecosystems - first in India, and then rest of world," he said.
Ambani said that using these technologies, we can create compelling solutions across multiple industry verticals like media, financial services, new commerce, education, healthcare, agriculture, smart cities, smart manufacturing and smart mobility.
"As India is standing at the doorsteps of the 5G era, we should accelerate the migration of 350 million Indians, who currently use a 2G feature phone, to an affordable smart phone," he said.
