Reliance Jio Infocomm, the newest mobile operator in India, ended 2016 with a total 72.4 million subscribers. The company launched by energy group Reliance Industries last September claims to be the fastest growing technology operation in the world, after signing up 50 million subscribers in just 83 days. To finance the continue growth, Reliance Industries announced plans for a rights issue of convertible preference shares at Jio to raise INR 300 billion (USD 4.4 billion).
Jio is winning over subscribers with an introductory and now New Year offer of free services for a limited time until March. The company also claims the most extensive 4G network in the country, which it said will reach soon 90 percent population coverage. Jio said it offers double the average speed compared to any other operator, at 18.17 Mbps in December on regulator Trai's comparison site.
However, the company is still facing problems with interconnection with other operators, which are reluctant to ease Jio's entry on the market. Jio said it has a call failure rate of 175 out of every 1,000 calls to the network of Airtel, the biggest operator in the country. Taht compares to regulatory targets of just five calls per 1,000.
