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December 07, 2011

RIL to Rollout High-Speed Broadband Services, 4G-Enabled Tablets in Late-2012

India's Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) will look to deploy 4G mobile broadband services by the end of 2012, at which time the company will launch a new family of 4G-capable tablet devices priced well below current 3G models, sources close to the situation told the Economic Times.

RIL will look to bundle the services with the tablets, dropping their price to around 3,500 rupees, or just $68. In contrast, the majority of 3G-enabled tablets on the market today cost well over $200.

Meanwhile, the mobile broadband services – made possible by a 4G wireless spectrum auction in June of 2010 – will be made available at around 20 cents per 1 GB of data, which is less than one-tenth the price of current 3G offerings, according to the Times.

The plan contradicts earlier reports that RIL would roll out 4G services in the middle of 2012 via data cards that could be plugged in to various mobile devices.

Analysts told the paper that the new offering will be a disruptive force in India, and could force competitors to follow suit with similar offerings. But so far, none have done so.

“Frankly I am quite surprised that none of these companies is treating RIL's launch as a threat at the moment,” one unnamed analyst commented. “I would think it is time to start gearing up for it. I don't see any of them doing anything.”

In other news, Infotel Broadband Services Ltd., a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd., has acquired a 38.5 percent stake in Extramarks Education Pvt. Ltd., a company focused on school education and digital learning. The investment in Extramarks has been made through an affiliate company Reliance Strategic Investments Ltd.




Beecher Tuttle is a MobilityTechzone contributor. He has extensive experience writing and editing for print publications and online news websites. He has specialized in a variety of industries, including health care technology, politics and education. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Jennifer Russell



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