Reliance Jio partners with Samsung to bring IoT to India, take LTE to 99% population by Diwali

The partnership formed last year between Reliance Jio and Samsung entered its next leg at the 2018 Mobile World Congress with something new thrown into the mix - internet of things (IoT). The Mukesh Ambani-led Jio and the Korean tech giant have joined hands to deploy a nationwide cellular IoT network in India. Both companies have also agreed to extend their collaboration to bring LTE coverage to 99 per cent of Indian population and improve network capacity across the country.

The commercial NB-IoT (narrowband internet of things) has already been established in Mumbai by Reliance Jio and Samsung in February this year. The aim is to roll out India's first IoT network with new use cases for both the consumer and enterprises such as vehicle tracking, smart appliances, smart metering, security, surveillance and more.

"Making sure that everyone benefits from mobile broadband that is both available and affordable to all is our top priority. We will once again partner with Samsung to offer a suite of innovative services for all users," said Jyotindra Thacker, President of Reliance Jio Infocomm.

NB-IoT is a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) radio technology standard which allows a wide range of devices and services to be connected using cellular telecommunications bands.  The NB-IoT network not only utilises the existing spectrum owned by Jio, but can also be enabled by a mere software upgrade to the already installed base stations. The company has also deployed a dedicated cellular IoT virtualised core.

On the question of how long before Reliance Jio rolls out IoT in India, Tareq Amin, Senior VP (Technology), Reliance Jio said that the company will have to create an entire ecosystem before the rollout. "Rather than of doing city-by-city launch, we would launch IoT always pan India. We are not waiting for network readiness, but we are awaiting maturity of the IoT platform," he said.

Moreover, Jio is hopeful of covering 99 per cent of country's population by Diwali this year. At present the company has a user base of 160 million subscribers in India. We are deploying around 8,000 to 10,000 towers every month, Thacker said.

"We are delighted to contribute to Jio's success story and rapid growth. We have been striving to offer the best experience possible to all users at Jio. Jio's LTE network will unlock the potential of IoT and promise a much more convenient and safe environment for users," said Youngky Kim, President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics.