JioPhone 2, Jio GigaFibre, Jio GigaTV announced: Things you need to know

Mukesh Ambani said upgraded JioPhones will have social media applications such as YouTube and Facebook, along with instant messaging service Whatsapp.

Mukesh Ambani on Thursday announced the launch of JioPhone 2, Jio fixed broadband services (Jio GigaFibre) and Jio Digital TV services (Jio GigaTV set-top box) at the company’s 41st annual general meeting, which was held in Mumbai. The company also said its upgraded JioPhones will have social media applications such as YouTube and Facebook, along with instant messaging service Whatsapp.

JioPhone 2

Like JioPhone, the JioPhone 2 is also a KaiOS-based 4G VoLTE-enabled feature phone, but with a full QWERTY keyboard and a wide horizontal screen. The phone sports a 2.4 QVGA screen, 4-way navigation key with a dedicated key for voice commands, dual-SIM slots and microSD card slot. In terms of specifications, the phone boasts 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal space, expandable up to 128GB via microSD card. Powering the phone is a 2,000 mAh battery, and the phone features in-build FM, NFC, GPS and Wi-Fi. The JioPhone 2 will also have access to social media applications such as YouTube and Facebook, along with instant messaging service WhatsApp. The phone will be available starting from August 15 at an introductory price of Rs 2,999.

After running trials at select cities, Mukesh Ambani on Thursday announced Jio’s fixed-line broadband services, which would be launched in 1,100 cities simultaneously for homes, merchants and small and medium enterprises and large enterprises. According to the company, Jio GigaFibre services would offer internet speed of up to one gigabyte per second (Gbps). The company did not announce the launch date or plans, but interested users can register their interest for Jio GigaFibre services on Jio web portal starting August 15. The locality that shows major interest would be among the first locations to get Jio’s home broadband services, according to Mukesh Ambani.

ALSO READ: Broadband stocks fall as RIL announces launch of JioGigaFibre

Jio GigaTV

Jio’s digital television content services is a part of GigaFibre internet services. The GigaTV set-top-box would offer internet-based digital content services, along with access to Jio’s app suite. Interestingly, the set-top-box would also support a video calling feature, which would allow users to make video calls from their televisions. It is still to be seen how the feature would work as the televisions currently does not support camera, in-build or external. The GigaTV remote would be voice-enabled, which would make it work with voice commands – something similar to how the Amazon’s Fire Stick remote works.

Reliance to invest Rs 600 bn in Jio this year, may borrow Rs 1 trn more

Subscriber additions, while suppressing incumbent telecom operators, will continue to remain top priority, say analysts

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is likely to invest another Rs 600 billion this year in its telecom business Reliance Jio Infocomm with an emphasis on faster rollout of broadband services and wireless expansion, Livemint reported, quoting anonymous company sources.

The sources have also been quoted as saying that Reliance Jio might borrow up to Rs 1 trillion in addition to the above-mentioned investment. Jio and RIL spokespersons did not comment on queries about the investment.

“Management made it very clear that their focus in the near term is to retain and grow their subscriber base and they would respond to market pricing. Essentially the implication was that incumbents would need to raise tariffs, but this would effectively lead to loss of market share for incumbents as JIO would offer the best 'value' to subscribers and hence continue to see large subscriber additions,” noted JP Morgan in their recent report on RIL.

The report further stated that JIO is expected to launch its broadband business with a pricing strategy similar to that of its telecom arm, given its focus is on creating a new market.

While JIO’s average revenue per user (ARPU) fell to Rs 137 from Rs 154 in the last quarter of 2017-18, it still remains better than that of Airtel and Idea cellular. JIO also managed to add almost 9 million subscribers during the quarter.

“Jio is expected to remain aggressive to gain market share, which could keep industry revenue under pressure and return ratios of incumbents suppressed,” noted an India Equity Research in a report on Monday.

JioFiber, the wired broadband arm, has started offering what they claim to be 'ultra-high-speed' fibre to home (FTTH) broadband connections with 1.1 terabytes (TB) of free data at speeds of 100 megabits per second (mbps) in select markets in the country already. However, commercial services are likely to be rolled out in the second-half of the year.

The company currently claims more than 300,000 km of optical fibre network in the country and the company is expected to target over 100 million households across the country with the service.

TCS becomes first Indian IT company to cross $100 bn in market-cap

In terms of market capitalisation, TCS has the largest market-cap and is ahead of companies like Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ITC, Hindustan Unilever

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has become the first Indian $100 billion- dollar company in terms of market capitalisation (market-cap) in the IT pack, after the stock hit a new high on Monday in intra-day trade.

The counter hit a new high of Rs 3,557, up 4.4% in intra-day trade, extending its Friday’s 6.7% surge, as the company reported better-than-expected March quarter earnings in post market hours on Thursday. TCS also announced 1:1 bonus shares i.e. one bonus shares of Rs 1 face value each for every share held in the company to its investors.

Also Read: After 12 quarters, TCS sees double-digit growth in dollar revenue in Q4

The 11% rise in the company’s scrip in past two trading days helped it cross Rs 6.81 trillion ($103 billion) in market-cap at around 10:33 am, the BSE data shows. The rupee was trading at 66.21 against the US dollar.

However, at the end of Monday's trade, the market-cap dipped below $100 billion level (Rs 6.54 trillion) to $ 98.44 billion as the stock erased its entire morning gains to end flat at Rs 3,415. TCS currently accounts for 11% of the total market-cap of the S&P BSE Sensex of Rs 60.81 trillion.

Track the stock price here

In terms of market capitalisation, TCS raks ahead of Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, ITC, Hindustan Unilever, HDFC, Maruti Suzuki and Infosys.

In its recent report, analysts at Nomura, however, have maintained a reduce rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 2,750.

"We retain Reduce as we find valuations expensive at ~20x FY20F and see risk to street expectations of ~double-digit constant currency (CC) revenue growth and flattish margins. Our caution stems from: 1) large segments US/BFSI remaining weak, growing at low- to mid-single digits y-y, with clarity on BFSI still a quarter away amid risks from insourcing at large US Banks," Ashwin Mehta and Rishit Parikh of Nomura said in a recent report.

Shock and awe: Note ban, Jio launch, GST & other headline grabbers of 2016

Business Standard recaps the most prominent economic and corporate developments of the year

By almost any yardstick the year has been unique: Public policy, business rivalries and implosions, court verdicts and corporate malfeasance set new standards of shock and awe that will reverberate well into 2017.

Business Standard recaps the most prominent of economic corporate developments


Demonetisation

In terms of disruptive impact, this was a decision with few parallels in Indian policy-making. On November 8 evening, just as Donald Trump recorded an unlikely victory in the US presidential polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi came on national television to announce the withdrawal of legal tender status to Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes, taking roughly 86 per cent of currency out of circulation. Citizens were given time till

December 30 to deposit old notes, but draconian withdrawal controls were put in place.

It was not just ordinary Indians who were caught unawares by this decision, which was initially explained as a route to staunching black money and terror finance. The government and Reserve Bank of India (RBI), too, seemed unprepared.  For one, the new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes required over 100,000 ATMs to be recalibrated, an exercise that could not begin till after the announcement was made in the interests of confidentiality. For another, the assumptions on which the decision was made played out so differently in reality, that 60 notifications have been issued over one and a half months imposing new conditions or reversing other ones.  

The Reliance-Jio launch

The Tata-DoCoMo controversy

Goods and Services Tax

The RIL-ONGC spat

Nikesh Arora’s exit from SoftBank

The Singur verdict

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