Reliance Jio, 8 global telcos in alliance for knowledge-sharing

Reliance Jio Infocomm and eight other telecom operators from across the world have formed an alliance that will allow knowledge sharing and bringing innovative products and services for customers. Announced on  Monday, members of the alliance include BT, Deutsche Telekom, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, Millicom, MTS, Orange, Rogers, TeliaSonera and TIM.

The alliance could reach a potential customer base of 1 billion in more than 80 countries through these nine operators, Reliance Jio said in a statement. Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom arm of Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries, said it is set to enable each Indian to live a digital life and to this end, they have built largest green-field 4G and fiber network, as well as a suite of digital services that enable entertainment, cloud, payment, among others.

"Jio has installed 90,000 eco-friendly cell towers that have a near-zero footprint, laid 2.5 lakh route kms of fiber optic cable country-wide, and its retail reach is spread over 1.02 lakh villages, 18,000 cities across all the 29 states of the country," Reliance Jio Infocomm Chief Product and Innovation Officer Rainer Deutschmann said.

Jio is a digital lifestyle company bringing to the Indian people the power of cutting-edge technology through 4G-LTE in its network, voice over LTE (VoLTE) and voice over Wi-Fi through its LYF devices, he added. The alliance focuses on exchanging best practices on how to bring partner propositions to the market, on joint efforts in partner scouting and will also exchange knowledge about upcoming trends and services amongst the group.

"As of today, the Alliance has established relationships with 30 innovative partner businesses including AirBnB, Celltick, Disconnect, Idoomoo, Magisto, Mojio and Spotify," it added. It further said that the alliance is an open network of like-minded operators worldwide with complementary geographical footprints.

The statement added it is covering all relevant product categories within an operator's business, mobile as well as fixed, B2C as well as B2B. The Alliance will be expanding to additional operators soon. "The joint forces of industry leaders create additional value for our customers and give us a chance to provide latest innovations, best services, products and client experience," CMO of MTS Group Vasyl Latsanych said.