Jio designs and develops complete 5G solution from scratch!

Here is the second part of Mukesh Ambani, Reliance's speech.

Jio/digital services
Let me start with our first hyper-growth engine – Jio, our digital service initiative. I would like to first share with you the philosophy that animates Jio's current and future initiatives.

The digital revolution marks the greatest disruptive transformation in the history of mankind. Comparable only to the appearance of human beings with intelligence capabilities on our planet about 50,000 years ago. It is comparable because man is now beginning to infuse almost limitless intelligence into the world around him. We are today at the initial stages of the evolution of an intelligent planet. Unlike in the past, this evolution will proceed with a revolutionary speed.

Our world will change more unrecognizably in just the eight remaining decades of the 21st century than today's world has changed from what it was 20 centuries ago. For the first time in history, mankind has an opportunity to solve big problems inherited from the past. This will create a world of prosperity, beauty and happiness for all. India must lead this change to create a better world.

For this, all our people and all our enterprises have to be enabled and empowered with the necessary technology infrastructure and capabilities. This is Jio's purpose. This is Jio's ambition.

Jio is now the undisputed leader in India. With the largest customer base, the largest share of data and voice traffic, and, a world-class next-generation broadband network that covers the length and breadth of our country. As always, we are deeply thankful and appreciative to all our customers, for their trust, and for giving us the privilege to serve and delight them every single day.

This year, 2020, will forever be etched in human consciousness because of Covid-19. Almost overnight, all of us became reliant on digital connectivity, to stay connected, to stay healthy, and to stay productive. I can say with pride, that during these past months, JIO has become the digital lifeline for Indians. Despite the huge surge in data traffic, Jio's network has held firm. We continue to deliver on our promise of being an essential service provider to the nation.

Jio's vision stands on two solid pillars. One is digital connectivity. The other is digital platforms. We have now fully kickstarted all the five accelerators for the growth of digital connectivity. These are: one, mobile broadband. Two, JIOFIBER, our optical-fiber based, gigabit-speed home broadband service. We have already connected over a million homes on JIOFIBER. Our growth will accelerate as we gear up to connect millions more over the coming months in the post-Covid-19 period.

Three, Jio's enterprise broadband service. In combination with powerful cloud solutions, this is enabling Indian enterprises to make rapid strides towards digital transformation, and global competitiveness. Four, broadband for SMEs. Jio's enterprise-grade voice and data services, and cloud-based solutions, are bringing Indian SMEs from zero connectivity and zero technology, to operating with the same efficiency as large connected enterprises. And five, Jio's narrowband Internet-of-Things – or NBIoT– service. We use our pan-India 4G network to connect billions of smart sensors, with the highest reliability and lowest cost.

In the next three years, I can see a strong path for Jio to connect over half a billion mobile customers, over a billion smart sensors, and over 50 million homes and business establishments. But, what is perhaps not so well known is that JIO's global-scale 4G and fiber network is powered by several core software technologies and components that have been developed by young Jio engineers, right here in India. And, this capability and know-how that JIO has developed, positions JIO on the cutting edge of another exciting frontier

5G solution from scratch!
Today friends, I have great pride in announcing that Jio has designed and developed a complete 5G solution from scratch. This will enable us to launch a world-class 5G service in India… using 100% home grown technologies and solutions. This Made-in-India 5G solution will be ready for trials as soon as 5G spectrum is available, and can be ready for field deployment next year.

Focus on cutting-edge technologies
Because of Jio's converged, all-IP network architecture… we can easily upgrade our 4G network to 5G. Once Jio's 5G solution is proven at India-scale, Jio Platforms would be well positioned to be an exporter of 5G solutions to other telecom operators globally, as a complete managed service. I dedicate Jio's 5G solution to our Prime Minister Narendra Modi's highly motivating vision of ‘ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT’.

Jio Platforms is conceived with this vision of developing original, captive intellectual property, using which, we can demonstrate the transformative power of technology across multiple industry ecosystems. First in India, and then confidently offering these Made-in-India solutions to the rest of the world. Applications like MyJio and Jio SAAVN have already become household names and are used by hundreds of millions of loyal customers each month.

Jio Platforms, along with its over 20 start-up partners, who are now part of our family, has built significant world-class capabilities in several cutting-edge technologies. One, 4G and 5G technologies, two, cloud computing, three, devices and operating systems, four, Big Data analytics, five, machine learning and artificial intelligence, six, virtual and mixed reality, seven, blockchain, eight, natural language understanding, and nine, computer vision.

Using these technologies, we can create compelling solutions that span multiple industry verticals and ecosystems, like media, financial services, new commerce, education, healthcare, agriculture, smart cities, smart manufacturing, and smart mobility. These are the technologies and ecosystem solutions that hold the power to achieve 360-degree digital transformation of India. Our start-up partners have contributed significantly to our strengths across many of these areas. We are inviting even more start-ups to join forces with us.

With its 100% owned intellectual property, total solutions approach, and the opportunity to serve a global audience, over the years, Reliance has also built deep domain knowledge in most of the Industry verticals that are key to the Indian  economy. Jio Platforms can combine this domain expertise with its technology strengths to create multiple innovative ecosystem solutions and managed services for our country. Each of these solutions, once proven in India, has the potential to be a global solution… that can be used to serve the rest of the world.

I am setting a goal for Jio Platforms to pursue this global opportunity and to create a significant source of revenue from both the domestic and global markets. I believe that the time has come for a truly global digital product and services company to emerge from India, and to be counted among the best in the world. Given Jio's ambitions to be a global technology, platforms and solutions company, It is important that we keep the company of the best technology enterprises in the world.

Partnership with Microsoft 
Last year, we announced our partnership with Microsoft. I am happy to report that we are making rapid progress in our Azure cloud partnership. As I mentioned to you earlier, we are privileged to enter into another strategic partnership with Facebook, one of the very best technology companies in the world. We had announced our partnership in April of this year, and we have now received all the necessary regulatory approvals. Both, Facebook and Jio share a strong vision for digitally empowering consumers as well as small businesses and entrepreneurs across India.

I want to share with all of you, a message from the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, which he made at the time of the announcement of our partnership.

India special for Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook said: “Hi everyone. I know there's a lot going on around the world right now, and I hope you are all staying healthy and safe. I want to share an important update. Facebook is joining forces with a new partner in India – we're making a major financial investment, and we will become the largest minority shareholder in Jio Platforms. More than that, we're also committing to work together on some critical projects that we think will open up a lot of opportunities for commerce in India.

"India is a special place for us, it's home to the largest communities around the world on Facebook and WhatsApp, and there are a lot of talented entrepreneurs. It is also in the middle of a major digital transformation that's being led by the organizations like Jio that over the last four years have put hundreds of millions of Indians on to the internet. And, that's a big deal, because when people get access to the internet, digital tools, they are powered to do a whole lot of new things – learning, teaching, finding communities, people they care about, and of course starting all kinds of new businesses.

"This is really important especially right now, because small businesses are at the core of every country's economy, and they need our support. India has more than 60 million small businesses and millions of people rely on them for their jobs and their livelihoods. Lot of entrepreneurs now need tools they can rely on to help them find and communicate with their customers and to grow their businesses.

"Now, with a lot of communities around the world in lockdown, it's even more important now than ever that people have the tools to connect with each other, and their businesses can find ways to operate online. This is something that we think we can help with, which is why we are proud to be partnering with Jio to help people and businesses in India create a lot of new opportunities. We are going to share more on this soon.

"I want to thank Mukesh Ambani and the entire Jio team for your partnership. We are going to build a lot of great things that people find valuable in their daily lives, and importantly that make it easier to live and easier to do business. This is an important moment for all of us, and I want to personally extend a welcome to all others who want to get involved and help in this effort. We're looking forward to getting started. So, thank you and I hope you all continue staying healthy and safe.”

WhatsApp platform of choice
WhatsApp, which is a Facebook product, is already the platform of choice for Indians and Indian businesses to connect with each other. Over 400 million WhatsApp users in India bring unique value to our partnership.

Jio's new commerce platform, JioMart, and Whatsapp will be working closely to create growth opportunities for millions of Indian small merchants and kirana shops. And, to ensure that consumers are able to transact seamlessly with nearby kiranas using JioMart and WhatsApp.

Let me now talk about our partnership with Google. From day one… it has been Jio's commitment to provide affordable 4G devices to more than 450 million feature phone users in India. It was with this intention that a couple of years back, we developed the JIOPHONE, which still remains the world's most affordable 4G phone.

Google, Jio to build Android OS
Now, even though we have sold over 100 million JIOPHONES till date, there are many feature phone users who are waiting, to upgrade to a conventional smartphone, if only it were somehow more affordable. So, we have decided to address this challenge head-on. We believe we can design entry-level 4G, or even 5G smartphone for a fraction of its current cost. But, to power such a value engineered smartphone, we also need an equally value-engineered smartphone operating system, and such an OS must be designed with India in mind.

Google and Jio are partnering to build an Android-based smartphone operating system. Through this partnership, we are confident that we can accelerate the national mission of putting a smart device in the hands of every Indian. As India is standing at the doorsteps of the 5G era, we should accelerate the migration of 350 million Indians, who currently use a 2G feature phone, to an affordable smart phone.

They should not be deprived of the benefits of the digital and data revolution. Jio is determined to make India 2G-mukt. On this occasion, we have with us a special guest to talk about this partnership, the CEO of Google, and a proud Indian icon – Sundar Pichai.

Google and Jio
“Thanks, Mukesh, and to the entire team at Reliance Industries, for all the work you do to give millions of Indians the power to shape their destiny through technology. And, thank you for the opportunity to share a few words about what our new partnership means to Google.

"Getting technology into the hands of more people is a big part of Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Through this partnership with Jio Platforms we see the chance to have an even greater impact than either company could have alone. This partnership is a key part of the next chapter of investment in India. Earlier this week, we announced our Google for India Digitization Fund, an effort to invest 75,000 crore rupees or approximately $10 billion -- to accelerate India's digital economy over the next 5 to 7 years.

"Our investment of $4.5 billion in Jio is the first -- and the biggest -- investment we will make through this fund. I am excited that our joint collaboration will focus on increasing access for hundreds of millions of Indians who don't currently own a smartphone, while improving the mobile experience for all. Growing up, I remember how the arrival of each new technology improved the lives of my family. Today, people in India no longer have to wait for technology to come to you. A whole new generation of technologies are happening here, first.

"At the same time, smartphones and affordable data have made it possible for a billion Indians to come online. Reliance, and Jio in particular, deserves a good deal of credit for this progress. But, there is more work to do to connect every Indian to the opportunities that technology creates. This goal is especially important at a time of enormous challenge for India and the world. I've never been more hopeful about India's future -- it's a future we can help shape by partnering together. Thank you for having me. I wish you strength and good health in the months to come.”

World-class partners
We are truly blessed to have world-class partners like Facebook, Google and Microsoft. In their company, we are even more confident of reaching the ambitious goals that we have currently identified. In a large market like India, I am sure we will find even more areas where we can work together.