Reliance Jio (RJio) is making affordable devices and simultaneously working on providing affordable services through Cloud.

The company said it is providing computing system also, which even small businesses are using by just buying a keyboard and mouse, as they can convert their televisions into a computer screen and can have access to Microsoft Word or PowerPoint.

“Our entire philosophy is not to make devices expensive. People can afford these low-end devices and put the network at the backend with Cloud and then use it. So, the whole philosophy is to make network faster, low latency and intelligent. A simple phone with a single Sim slot can be used as smartphone for watching news, entertainment, all through cloud,” a senior official at Reliance Jio told businessline.

The official said instead of buying a smartphone that is loaded with memory chips, apps and comes expensive, Jio phones which come as a simple device can be used with all the features through Cloud. Also, now with 5G network, which is mostly artificial intelligence (AI)-driven, more services can be provided through Cloud.

“We have invested $25 billion in putting 5G network. In India, spectrum is not a capitalisable asset as spectrum is given for certain period (15 years by the government). If you look at from that perspective it is a very cost heavy industry, and therefore we need to innovate things,” the official said.

Lowering costs

Jio is committed to bring full data services, he said, adding that “everybody in India should have enough data. Only data will give them path to the future whether it is education, sports, etc.”

“We have already stated that our goal is to bring out feature phone users which are around 200 million right now, to smartphone usage. They are still in 2G and cannot use data... so cost of device needs to come down first. So, the approach we are taking is to make the device cost lower and bring the intelligence of the device to network, making the network more intelligent,” he explained.

The official said that RJio has collaboration with Microsoft which has built Azure data centres across India, to provide such services to the consumers.

RJio has also launched two new JioBharat models — V3 and V4 at India Mobile Congress, 2024 last week. Priced at ₹1,099, the new models offer access to JioTV, JioCinema, JioPay, JioChat, etc.

According to analysts, RJio content strategy is targeting tier-2 markets that include over the top (OTT) /Jio apps. These apps include JioTV, JioCinemas, JioNews, JioSaavn (music) and JioPay (payments). The focus is on tier 2+ value conscious customers, enterprise business with a target to connect 50 million small and medium businesses (SMBs) in the enterprise sector.

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