 "RJio working with OEMs for device design")
In its annual report for the year 2014-15, RIL said in addition to 4G wireless services, the high speed fibre connectivity will enable RJIL to provide a wide gamut of digital services across various sectors.
The quality of voice services on VoLTE is superior compared to 2G/3G voice services. VoLTE also allows video-calling, and RJIL has showcased LTE- Time Division Duplex (LTE-TDD) inter-operability use case with China Mobile at Mobile World Congress 2014 (MWC) in Barcelona. In addition to high speed data, the 4G network will provide voice services from and to non-RJIL networks.
Reliance Jio (RJio), is actively involved in developing the ecosystem for India’s LTE phones and is working with renowned orignial equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and Original Design Manufacturers and chipset vendors on end-to-end device design and engineering.
"Reliance Jio is ensuring the tight integration of these devices with Jio’s network infrastructure, platforms and applications portfolio to ensure seamless experience to customers," RIL's annual report said.
RJio is the only private player with pan-India broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum. It also acquired spectrum in 800 MHz and 1,800 MHz in auctions held in 2014 and 2015.
"RJIL is working aggressively in achieving the minimum roll-out obligations as specified in the notice inviting application for the spectrum auction in 2010, as per the Test Schedule Test Procedure (TSTP) issued by DoT in March, 2015," said RIL.
RJIL is rolling out physical office infrastructure across 880 cities/towns across India and has launched trial wi-fi hot spots across India and is in the process of entering agreements with various state and local authorities to provide wi-fi services, the annual report added.
RIL will also use TV18 platform to differentiate Reliance’s Jio business by providing a unique amalgamation at the intersect of telecom, web and digital commerce via a suite of premier digital properties. During the year, Independent Media Trust (IMT), of which RIL is the sole beneiciary, acquired the control of Network18 Media & Investments Limited (Network18), including its subsidiary TV18 Broadcast Limited (TV18). With the completion of this transaction, IMT and RIL became promoters of Network18 and TV18.
In his note to shareholders, Mukesh Ambani said: "Reliance has always believed in investing in India and in businesses of the future. FY 2014-15 was a landmark year for our company. We have invested over $16 billion or over Rs 1,00,000 crore in creating growth engines for the future. This is the highest ever in the history of our company...and also the highest by any Indian corporate in a single year and is about 0.8% of India’s GDP.
On its exploration and production business front, RIL expects first gas production from its coal bed methane blocks during FY 2015-16 and that during the year, RIL made significant progress towards development of two Coal Bed Methane (CBM) blocks, Sohagpur East and Sohagpur West.
RIL said in its view, "the methodology used for valuation of gas under these guidelines, does not relect true armslength market price of gas in India as required under the production sharing contract signed with the Government. Without prejudice to any of its rights and contentions, RIL is complying with the guidelines." On 18th October, 2014, the Government notified the New Domestic Natural Gas Price Guidelines 2014.
On nurturing and managing its talent, RIL said has adopted the 70:20:10 principle. The principle focuses on providing its people three categories of experience, 70% through the challenging work on hand, 20% through interaction with people and 10% from training activities.
"While the five functional and four business academies give emphasis to enhancing the functional and domain competencies of employees - through e-learning, classroom training and on-the-job assignments.
March 2015, RIL’s total people strength is 24,930 including 1,195 female employees. RIL employs people from 19 nationalities. RIL partnered with institutions and professional bodies worldwide, including the Indian Institutes of Management, Indian Institutes of Technology, Harvard Business School, Bersin by Deloitte and Corporate Executive Board, among others, to provide ‘anywhere-anytime’, e-learning and classroom programmes.
"To build tomorrow’s leaders, RIL has rolled out the Career Acceleration Programme (CAP). This programme identifies, supports and accelerates the development of employees, who demonstrate high potential and the level of excellence required to move into senior positions within the organisation," RIL said.
RIL has created a bench strength for leadership roles in the organisation and focusing on long-term development initiatives, such as mentoring and coaching by leadership teams, job rotations and stretch assignments.