NEW DELHI: Reliance Jio Media, a subsidiary of Reliance Jio Infocomm, has applied for a pan India cable television multi system operator (MSO) license as part of its step to enter the broadcast distribution sector.
Confirming this to indiantelevision.com, an Information and Broadcasting Ministry official said that around 200 MSOs are in the queue for phase III of digital addressable system (DAS) license at present. Following the recent extension in date for registration of MSOs for phase III, the official said it was expected that this number may go up by another 70-80 MSO applicants.
At least 50 per cent of these applicants including Reliance Jio are expected to get clearances by March 2015.
Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries, is the only company to have pan-India Broadband Wireless Access spectrum that can be used for 4G services. Reliance Jio has plans to start 4G services across most of the telecom circles by March 2015.
Reliance Industries has already announced that it will launch commercial 4G telecom service of Reliance Jio in 2015 entailing investment of Rs 70,000 crore. It will initially cover about 5,000 towns and cities accounting for over 90 per cent of urban India, as well as over 215,000 villages in India.
The company is focusing on convergence space and has bagged Broadband Wireless Access spectrum in 2010 and Internet Service Provider license was bagged through acquisition of Infotel Broadband Services in 2010.
The company has also showcased a 'Jio Television' that can be delivered through 4G network.
All these services will help Reliance Jio to offer broadband services through wireless media, wireline media and cable TV media thereby focusing on all types of broadband services pan-India.
Reliance Jio in February 2014 acquired airwaves in 1800 MHz band across 14 out of 22 service area in the country. The spectrum in this band can also be used for providing 4G services. The company already holds Unified Licence (UL), which allows it to use any technology to provide telecom services.
Under UL, sources said, Reliance Jio can offer Fiber-To-The-Home services and high speed broadband services to home and enterprise users.
An MSO license will help Reliance Jio to offer cable TV services through optical fiber thereby providing triple play service as done by large MSOs in the country say Hathway, Siti Cable, IN cable, DEN and others.
