The telecom arm of MukeshAmbani-led Reliance Industries, Reliance JioInfocomm has entered into the Next Generation Enterprise Network Alliance (ngena), along with companies like CenturyLink, SK Telecom, and Deutsche Telekom.
The companies announced the alliance at the GSMA Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2016. The Congress is being held at Barcelona, in Spain. Another 20 service providers will be added to ngena.
Aim of the Alliance
As per the plan, ngenawill roll out international network services for business customers by June 2017. In a report, ABI Research estimated that the size of the business communication market by 2020 will be nearly USD 200 billion.
Aside from global coverage, ngena will offer a service catalog to all the associated companies. The telecom operators will thus be able to deploy a unique network service experience for business customers. They will make use of network function virtualization and automation to offer efficient services.
The international alliance will help companies deploy quick services even in remote areas. All the participating companies aim to gain profitable growth in the global network access and transport services. The global network and transport services' market is worth USD 50 billion and is growing at a rate of 3.5% every year.
CEO of Deutsche Telekom, Timotheus Hottges said that public internet services are not secure for the use of real-time applications like telemedicine, logistics, and manufacturing. He said that business customers do not prefer a network that offers poor service quality. "
That is why our alliance aims to provide multinational enterprise customers with a secure, powerful, global network service faster than before", he added.
Operations of the Alliance
The ngenahas adopted an innovative business model,supported by Cisco cloud and virtualization technology. The alliance will offer secure telecommunications services to multinational companies. All the participating companies will create unified service levels. With assistance from Cisco, they will offer seamless connections and standardized interfaces among their networks.
The networks of different companies will be made compatible with each other through the Ethernet protocol. Hubs in Europe, Asia, and America will manage the physical and virtual network assets.
With the increase in network convergence and spread of Software Defined Networks (SDN) and cloud technology, the alliance will become more beneficial.
Reliance Jio's 4G Launch
It is expected that Reliance Jiowill roll out its commercial 4G services in April 2016. The company aims to cover 80% of the Indian population by the end of this year. The delay in its launch is enabling the company to establish a strong network.
Reliance Jio is making plans to buy a liberalized spectrum from Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications in states of Rajasthan, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. The company wants to include a strong band of 850 MHz in its network through trading or sharing deals across the country.
Reliance Jio is the only company to have pan-India Broadband Wireless Access (BWA). It also holds spectrum in the bands of 1800 MHz and 2300 MHz. Currently, the company has 30% share of the entire liberalized spectrum.
Summary
Jio sealed the Next Generation Enterprise Network Alliancealong with Deutsche Telekom, CenturyLink, and SK Telecom.