Former Cisco CEO lauds RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani for a different reason

Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani was recently lauded by former Cisco CEO John T Chambers for the technology leaps that RIL has undertaken in the last few years. Speaking to The Innovator magazine, John T Chambers said that RIL’s work in keeping up with digitisation trends is appreciable, adding that the same will help RIL in times of transition.

John Chambers also later tweeted the same and said: “Good to see Mukesh Ambani and Reliance Industries Ltd. featured in The Innovator. Mukesh is setting an example to follow by understanding technology trends and taking bold, smart risks that will keep the company ahead of market transitions.”

Mukesh Ambani’s telecom firm Reliance Jio brought a data revolution in the country by initially providing free 4G data to its users. While the company later started charging for the services, it was at throwaway prices considering the then tariffs of the internet and voice services. In its 41st AGM last year, RIL also announced the roll out of its Jio Fiber services on a commercial basis on September 5 and a host of new services were also announced. The decision to ramp up Jio Fiber services was widely considered as another disruptive move by the Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate after the launch of Reliance Jio.

The company is now gearing up for the launch of 5G services in the country. Reliance Industries Ltd. had earlier said that a clear roadmap for spectrum allocation will help in establishing India as a leader in the 5G space.

“The prices of 5G spectrum need to be critically relooked at. Higher floor prices will lead to 5G networks being unviable and therefore getting delayed. An equilibrium therefore, needs to be established between Government revenue and overall growth,” Mahendra Nahata, Reliance Jio Infocomm board member, said at the India Mobile Congress in 2019.