Updates
The event concludes. The biggest highlight from today's announcement is the new Jio Happy New Year offer, which gives new and existing users free 4G data, VoLTE HD voice calls, national roaming, access to MyJio apps free till March 31, 2017. The second major announcement was strengthening the JioMoney app, which will help Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a cashless India. We'll bring detailed reports about today's event shortly. We too wish you all a Happy New Year in advance.
Read: Top 10 takeaways from Reliance Jio's event on December 1
2:00 IST: "We hope that with Jio, your life is digital," Ambani said wishing people of India a Happy New Year.
13: 57 IST: JioMoney is signing up with 10 million merchants in the next few weeks.
13: 55 IST: Ambani highlights JioMoney benefits for common people and merchants to support PM Modi's demonetisation.
13:53 IST: Jio users also get 30x the average usage of other networks for free till March 31.
13:50 IST: All new and existing Jio customers will get free data, voice calls, and other Jio services free till March 31, 2017.
13: 48 IST: Ambani announces Happy New Year Offer. All Jio services will be free till March 31, 2017 for new users joining the network from December 4, 2016.
13: 48 IST: Jio is committed to work 24/7 to deliver flawless user experience.
13:46 IST: "Jio is and will be a customer-obsessed company," Ambani says.
13:39 IST: Ambani highlights four major achievements:
eKYC (Aadhaar based SIM activation): Jio signed up an average of 6 lakh customers every single day for the last three months. Jio has 2 lakh outlets with eKYC in India, which is equal to the number of ATMs in India. By March 2017, there will be 4 lakh eKYC outlets.
Voice Interconnect Issue: Nearly 900 crore calls between Jio and three major telcos were blocked. Call block rates have come down from 90 percent to 20 percent. In the coming weeks, Ambani assures that it will further be down to under 0.02 percent in the upcoming weeks.
Number portability: Ambani announces that Jio supports complete number portability.
Also announces home delivery of Jio SIMs to those who wish to port their number.
Network speed: Eight percent of Jio towers experienced congestion due to high data usage. The company is now working to improve speeds on those eight percent of towers. Ambani says Jio's data speeds are much better than the current telcos.
13:38 IST: "Jio customers are using 25 times more data than an average data user in India," Ambani says.
13:37 IST: "Jio's growth is faster than Facebook and WhatsApp," Ambani said, thanking everyone for helping Jio achieve its success today.
13:36 IST: Ambani begins his speech, addressing the attendees and 52 million subscribers of Jio.
13:35 IST: RIL chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani will address us "all" shortly.
13:30 IST: "Live stream is starting soon" is displayed on the official channels of Jio.
13: 25 IST: The event will begin shortly.
13: 20 IST: A source tells us today's event is going to be regarding Jio services.
Reliance Jio is once again going to rule the headlines with its latest announcement on December 1. RIL's chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani will be addressing the company's employees, shareholders and the entire country at an event scheduled to kick off at 1.30 pm on Thursday.
If you wish to be a part of Ambani's next adventure, you can watch his speech live on YouTube and through company's social media channels. To bring an extended coverage of Jio's big announcement today, International Business Times, India will be bringing you live updates from the event, which is about to begin in a few minutes.
If you wish to know what can be expected from Jio at this new event, you are in luck as we have a list of possibilities.
Jio Welcome Offer 2.0
Rumours are rife that Jio might announce a new Welcome Offer, which as you would guess will offer free 4G LTE data, VoLTE voice calls, national roaming and SMS free for 90 days. It is unclear if the Jio Welcome Offer 2.0 will be offered to all the users or simply to attract new subscribers, which would mean the existing users' free offering will end on December 31, 2016.
Let's not lose hope just yet folks.
Public Wi-Fi
There have been several reports about Jio testing public Wi-Fi service in parts of the country, but little has the company shared about its commercialisation. Today's event will be a great platform to make such an announcement.
Jio's tariffs, which are expected to go live from January 1, 2017, have something called public Wi-Fi. It would be great if Ambani could shed more light on where to find these hotspots and how convenient will they be for users.
Jio DTH
Rumours have been supporting both sides of Jio's plans to launch a DTH service of its own or not. It makes sense for the company to launch a DTH service since it has its roots in the telecom and broadband services.
Assuming the Jio DTH is coming, it is going to be a hit for its rich content and affordable pricing. We'll know more in a few minutes.
GigaFiber 1Gbps broadband
Unlike other rumours, there is a strong guess about Jio's GigaFiber high-speed optic fibre broadband, which is being tested in select cities. It is suggested that Jio's broadband would also disrupt the market with its 1Gbps speeds at ultra-cheap costs starting at just Rs 500 a month for 3.5GH data use per day. Plans go as high as Rs 5,500 for 300GB per month.
It would be really exciting if Jio pulls a Welcome Offer-like three month free trial on its GigaFiber rollout. What's the harm in being optimistic right!
Affordable 4G feature phones
Finally, new rumours have it that Jio might actually be holding this event to announce 4G-enabled feature phones that will support its network in the most affordable way. These phones are expected to cost less than Rs 2,000.
Luckily, we don't have to wait much longer now. Stay tuned to get latest news directly from Jio's event here. All updates of the event as it unfolds will appear at the top of the article.
13: 25 IST: The event will begin shortly.
13: 20 IST: A source tells us today's event is going to be regarding Jio services.
