In a major announcement, which will resonate with the votaries of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Wednesday revealed that Jio has developed a completely indigenous 5G solution, which will stamp out the need for a company to depend on third-party vendors, including Chinese telecom major Huawei.
Hyping it as a 'Made in India’ 5G solution, Ambani promised that the transition from 4G to 5G will be easy, and said that once it is set up, the company aims to offer it to other global telecom operators.
The "Made-in-India" technology can be harnessed in a year's time once spectrum is available, he said.
In another major announcement, the RIL CMD announced that Google will invest Rs 33,737 crore and pick up a 7.7 per cent stake in Jio Platforms Ltd.
‘‘Google and Jio are partnering to build an Android-based operating system that could power a value engineered, entry level 4G/5G smartphone,’’ Ambani said. ‘‘Through this partnership, we can accelerate the national mission of putting a smart device in the hands of every Indian," the industrialist, whose wealth has recently surpassed that of Warren Buffett, explained.
Interestingly, world's two largest technology companies and rivals, Google and Facebook, are both investors in Jio. While Google is looking at a Rs 33,737 crore investment, Facebook had picked up a 9.9 per cent stake in late April for Rs 43,574 crore.
Even though India has the world’s second-largest internet user base, there is still a huge untapped consumer base. In 2019, India had 560 million internet users, which is still under 50% of its total population.
SMART GLASSES: Reliance also announced its latest offering: Jio Glass. The sunglasses come with a convenient cable that can be attached to a phone and connect with internet. Weighing just 75 gm, it has a personalised audio system which, without any accessory attached, supports all standard audio formats. There will be two microphones on the glass that will help users while video conferencing. There is a camera in the centre of the two frames, right above the bridge, which will click photos and upload them in real-time to any video conference, plus the images can be saved to the paired smartphone. There is no information about the processor used on the Jio Glass but the company has said its smart glasses will be able to run as many as 25 apps. The device can be used to attend a meeting while sitting at home and share presentations which can be viewed on a large virtual screen. It is also intended for teachers and students in virtual classrooms.
