Reliance Jio applies for Unified Licence

Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom arm of Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries (RIL) has applied for a Unified Licence (UL) which will enable the company to offer complete telecom service, including voice, according to sources.

The move will increase competition in the already crowded telecom market in the country. Relience Jio's entry into the full-service telecom space may also trigger another round of price war though the industry is suffering from low average revenue per user (ARPU) and lower net realisation.

As the UL is delinked with spectrum, Reliance will be able to offer all telecommunication services, if it wants, using the Boradband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum that it had bought for Rs 12,847 crore in 2010 for all the telecom circles in India.

Reliance Jio becomes the first company to apply for the UL, which the Government had notified early this week.

A Reliance Jio spokesperson declined to comment on the issue. Reliance Jio, which is the only company to have BWA spectrum for all the telecom zones in India, will have to pay about Rs 1,600 crore for the new UL.

With the earlier permit, Reliance Jio was allowed to offer only the Long-term Evolution (LTE) or 4G service. And it did not have permission for offering voice services over BWA spectrum. Relience Jio had the licence of an Internet Service Provider (ISP).

However, the company is yet to roll out the much-discussed LTE/4G services commercially. It is expected to start rolling out 4G services early next year.

Bharti Airtel, the country's largest operator by subscriber base, is the only company to commercially launch 4G service in select telecom zones.

While there were stiff protests, the Government had, early this year, proposed to allow voice over LTE for the BWA spectrum winners. It was then approved in the new UL.

In July this year, Bharti Airtel had sought permission from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to test voice over LTE in Delhi and Mumbai telecom zones.