Techtonic

  Apart from its plans to launch affordable smartphones, developing low-cost laptops, and boosting 5G services in India, Reliance Jio has today announced to build the “largest” international submarine cable system in India. The system will include a network of subsea fiber-optic cable lines connecting India to the top interexchange points and content hubs around the world for extension of connectivity services. The Indian telecom giant has reportedly partnered with several global organizations and submarine cable suppliers SubCom to build the networking system. The company aims to create two interconnecting networking systems to aid the  “extraordinary growth in data demand across the region.” “For the first time in the history of fiber optic submarine telecommunications, these systems place India at the center of the international network map, recognizing India’s increased importance, staggering growth, and the quantum shift in data use since the launch of Jio ...

  JioMeet Adds New Integrations with Microsoft Teams, Outlook Reliance Jio’s video-conferencing software,  JioMeet , is adding a bunch of new features to make things easier for business users. The company is adding integrations with Microsoft’s video-conferencing solution —  Microsoft Teams  — as well as with  Outlook . With the new integrations, businesses using Microsoft Teams will be able to schedule their JioMeet calls seamlessly. Moreover, JioMeet’s Outlook add-in will allow users to directly  schedule JioMeet calls from within the Outlook interface . Users will be able to click on the ‘choose meeting’ option and select ‘JioMeet’. They will then be able to schedule and plan the meeting, which will be added into their Outlook calendar as well as JioMeet calendar automatically. The new JioMeet features are  available to integrate with Teams and Outlook as add-ins . Interested users can download JioMeet from within the Teams software client, whereas ...

Abu Dhabi Sovereign Fund Mubadala to Invest Rs.9,000 Crore in Reliance Jio By Techtonic group Reliance Industries on Friday announced that  Abu Dhabi state fund, Mubadala Investment, will buy a 1.85% stake in Jio Platforms for Rs. 9,093.6 crores  ($1.2 billion). It is the latest in a series of high-profile investments in the digital arm of India's largest conglomerate. The six deals over the past few weeks have helped Reliance Industries mop-up a combined Rs. 87,655 crores. In a press statement, Mukesh Ambani, the chairman and MD of RIL, said:  "I am delighted that Mubadala, one of the most astute and transformational global growth investors has decided to partner us in our journey to propel India’s digital growth towards becoming a leading digital nation in the world. Through my longstanding ties with Abu Dhabi, I have personally seen the impact of Mubadala’s work in diversifying and globally connecting the UAE’s knowledge-based economy. We look forward to be...

Jio Subscribers Will Get 1 Year of Disney+ Hotstar VIP Free By Techtonic group Indian telecom giant Jio is on a roll lately. The operator's subscriber base is increasing at a steady pace and it has already become the  largest telecom operator  in Delhi NCR. Now, the operator is teasing a new bundle for its subscribers which will offer them free  Disney+ Hotstar  VIP subscription for a year. It's noteworthy that Jio has offered Hotstar subscriptions in the past as well. However, this is the first time it's bringing it for Disney+ Hotstar with its increased Rs. 399 per year price. With this subscription, users will get access to all of Disney+ Hotstar's content. This includes Disney shows and movies, Hotstar specials, live sports, and more. However it does not include Disney+ originals. There is still a lot that is unknown about this deal. For one, we don't know when the bundle will go live. Jio's website mentions 'Coming Soon' under the banner...

Facebook Floats New Entity 'Jaadhu Holdings' as Part of Facebook-Jio Deal By Techtonic group Facebook now has  a new entity named 'Jaadhu Holdings LLC'  as part of its  9.9% stake acquisition  in Jio Platforms Limited. Both companies disclosed the entity in a submission filed to the Competition Commission of India. "Jaadhu is an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Facebook.   Jaadhu is a newly incorporated company formed in March 2020 under the laws of the State of Delaware, United States."  reads the filing.  "As on the date of the Notification Form, Jaadhu is not engaged in any business in India or anywhere in the world" The companies ensure CCI that  this transaction will not change the competitive landscape . As mentioned in the filing, Facebook and Jio Platforms will continue to operate independently. Moreover, Facebook and Reliance claim there isn't any significant overlap between the areas the companies operate in. "The Pr...

JioSaavn Gets Improved UI and Recommendations with New Updao By Techtonic group Popular music streaming service JioSaavn has received a new update focused on improving the overall UI and UX experience. The first noticeable change is on the home screen. You will now see  dedicated sections for Music, Podcasts, and JioTunes . With this redesign, you can easily access these sections without much hassle or friction. The company is adding a 'Living Search' feature that offers you recommendations based on your listening habits and preferred genres. Along with Living Search, there exists 'Shorties' - a feature that brings  15-second visuals to select tracks . As reported by  MBW , the first set of artists with Shorties visuals include Eric Nam, Dimitri Vegas and Like Mike, Alesso, Martin Garrix, Siddhu Moosewala, Bohemia, Zaeden, Armaan, and Marshmello. Behind the scenes, the company has  improved AI-based recommendations . According to JioSaavn, the service wil...

WhatsApp to Soon Get 'Status' Feature on KaiOS Devices Like JioPhone By Techtonic group Mozilla's Firefox OS may not have been able to compete against Android in the low-cost smartphone sweepstakes, but unbeknownst to many, a forked version of the software has been gaining a massive user-base over the past couple of years. Called ' KaiOS ', the Firefox OS-based operating system powers basic feature phones like the  Jio Phone  and the  Nokia 8110 .  It has a combined user-base of over 100 million , making it the third-largest mobile platform in the world after Android and iOS. While KaiOS is obviously lacking in apps as compared to the two smartphone platforms, a number of popular social media applications, in particular, are now available on the platform. Much like  ChromeOS ,  KaiOS is also essentially a browser with HTML5 and Javascript . So more often than not, KaiOS apps are basically mobile websites wrapped into an app that can be stored lo...

Jio Fiber Lost 20,000 Subscribers as Wired Broadband Market Shrunk in January By Techtonic group Even as its wireless business  goes from strength to strength , Reliance Jio's wired broadband service has reportedly hit a rough patch after a reasonably smooth start.  Jio Fiber  apparently lost 20,000 subscribers in January even as its largest private-sector competitor, Airtel, added 10,000 subscribers every month since November. As of January 31st, Jio Fiber is the fifth-largest wired broadband provider in the country with 8.4 lakh (840,000) subscribers, down from 8.6 lakh (860,000) in November, 2019. According to the latest data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the total number of wired broadband subscribers in the country stood at 19.08 million (1.90 crore) at the end of January 2020, a slight drop from the 19.14 million (1.91 crore) the previous month. BSNL remained the biggest player by far with 8.23 million (82.3 lakh) subscribers, wh...

Reliance Jio Reportedly Offering 24-Hour Grace Plan with Unlimited Jio Calls By Techtonic group Reliance Jio has reportedly started offering a new 'Grace plan' for prepaid users. The plan seems to be valid for 24 hours and apparently kicks in once your existing plan's validity gets expired. As reported by  OnlyTech , the plan offers unlimited on-net (Jio-to-Jio) calls, which could be beneficial for customers to stay connected especially during these tough times. This new grace plan would help people who are not used to online recharge facilities gain a brief relaxation period within which they could recharge their plans. That said, do keep in mind that services will get terminated once the user crosses the allotted 24-hour timeframe. At the time of writing this article, Jio has not officially announced this new grace plan, which hints this could be part of a limited test. We could expect the telecom giant to make an official announcement if it has plans to keep ...

Reliance Jio is the Largest Telecom Operator in Delhi: TRAI Data By Techtonic group It doesn't really come as a big surprise anymore when I read about Jio becoming a mammoth telecom operator. That said, it's very interesting to see just how fast the company is growing, and why. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has released the subscriber data as of January 2020 and it turns out, Reliance Jio now has the largest subscriber base in Delhi. Trailing behind it are Vodafone-Idea, and Bharti Airtel. According to the report, the market share that Jio holds in the Delhi telecom circle is 33.36%, which is pretty big. The telco currently has 1.77 crore subscribers in Delhi NCR, with a growth rate of 1.55 percent. The company added approximately 2.71 lakh new subscribers in January 2020. Vodafone-Idea has around 1.76 crore subscribers, but it's on a decline rate of 0.31%. The operator lost over 54 thousand subscribers in January in the Delhi circie. Bharti Airtel, ...

Jio Phone May Soon Get UPI Apps For Faster Payments By Techtonic group According to a recent report from  The Economic Times  citing two people familiar with the matter, Reliance Jio is in talks with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to facilitate Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payment apps to Jio Phones for faster payments. The report further states that the telecom giant has already started working on the NPCI infrastructure for implementing it. As per industry sources, this move could increase the adoption of UPI in the country and would widen the audience of leading UPI-based payment apps like Google Pay, Paytm, and PhonePe. "They have been working on the NPCI library, which essentially brings the payments screen where one puts a password after initiating a transaction. They need to build this through NPCI library separately because of the different operating system, which has few non-Jio Apps,"  says a person quoted by ET. As per the rep...

Reliance Jio Secures $1.5 Billion Investment From Vista Equity Partners By Techtonic group Just a couple of weeks after  Facebook acquired a 10 percent stake in Reliance Jio  for $5.7 billion (around Rs 43,500 crores), the Indian telecom giant has  received a further investment of $1.5 billion  (around Rs. 11,300 crores), this time from American private equity firm, Vista Equity Partners. According to  Reuters , the investment would give the US investment firm a 2.32 percent stake in Reliance Jio Platforms, valuing the  Indian telecom giant  at $65 billion (Rs. 4.91 lakh crores). The latest big-ticket investment in Reliance Jio comes just over two weeks after Facebook's blockbuster investment and just a few days after American private equity firm,  Silver Lake, announced an investment of $750 million  (around Rs. 5,600 crores) for a 1.15 percent stake in the company. Together, the three new deals have now earned Reliance Industrie...