Samsung has partnered with Reliance Jio to announce a new “I&G (Infill & Growth) Project” at the Mobile World Congress 2017. The joint project will help upgrade current LTE services across India by expanding both the current network capacity as well as network coverage.
Through this project, both the companies are aiming to deliver wider LTE coverage, with in-building penetration and high-speed data, regardless of user’s location. For this, both of them will utilise spectrum in the 850 Hz, 1800 Hz and 2300MHz band. This will help Reliance Jio to increase its reach to over 90 per cent of the population in rural areas.
“We successfully achieved 100 million subscribers in 170 days, making us the fastest-growing company in the world, and the numbers continue to rapidly grow. It was possible because we introduced a truly effective LTE service, Pan-India. We are committed to bringing game-changing digital experiences to India with superior ecosystems, mobile content, all-IP networks and ongoing process innovations,” said Jyotindra Thacker, President of Reliance Jio Infocomm.
Interestingly, Samsung will also partner with Jio to roll out 5G services in India as well. “The massive deployment of over a million cells across India is especially remarkable. We will strive to create new paradigms for LTE-Advanced Pro and 5G by closely cooperating with Jio as a unified workforce,” said Youngky Kim, President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics.
Previously, Samsung provided the LTE core, base stations and solutions required for VoLTE services, as well as massive deployment services for establishing a nationwide network for Jio. The Korean giant will also help Jio offer a superior service to its users by providing professional solutions such as Samsung VoLTE, Quality Monitoring and Analysis (VoMA) and Cognitive Traffic Monitoring and Optimizer for a superior user experience.
The relationship between Jio and Samsung goes back to 2012 when the two companies signed a turn-key agreement covering the entire scope of the network, ranging from equipment to establishment and maintenance services.