After becoming the biggest buyer of the 5G spectrum in India, Reliance Industries has announced an investment of INR2 trillion (US$25 billion) for pan-India 5G rollout, in addition to the co-development of an ultra-cheap 5G smartphone with Google and e-commerce shopping services with Meta.
According to Reuters, Bloomberg, Nikkei Asia and PT, Reliance held the annual general meeting on August 29, announcing it would invest INR2 trillion and start 5G standalone services beginning in October in big cities, such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata, with pan-India 5G rollout by December 2023.
Reliance will co-develop an ultra-cheap 5G smartphone with Google and launch billions of smart sensors to trigger IoT and fuel the fourth industrial revolution, adding that Reliance’s 5G equipment suppliers include Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung Electronics and Cisco.
Following a test integration of Meta and JioMart, Reliance’s O2O e-commerce platform, Reliance at the latest annual general meeting launched JioMart on WhatsApp, allowing JioMart’s users to shop and pay without leaving WhatsApp, which has about half a billion monthly active users in India, according to TechCrunch.
According to Reuters, Reliance re-affirmed its investment of INR750 billion over five years to maximize oil to chemicals integration and produce high-value and green materials. Reliance said it is one of the largest producers of grey hydrogen and will begin the transition to green hydrogen and expand its solar manufacturing capacity to 20GW by 2025. Reliance is talking to global electrolyzer technology players to set up a manufacturing plant in Jamnagar, Gujarat.
Reliance spent more than INR880 billion buying a total of 24,740MHz of airwaves in early August, becoming the biggest buyer in the latest 5G spectrum bidding. Reliance emphasized its standalone version of upcoming 5G services, joined O-RAN and developed indigenous 5G stack. With a market value of more than US$220 billion, Reliance’s businesses spans telecommunications, retail, petrochemicals and green energy.
