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Broadband connectivity is empowering the people of India to make the best use of their mobile phones. It is also becoming increasingly popular as younger generations are more tuned into technology and the latest gadgets. To meet the needs of these customers, many companies are setting up infrastructure to offer unified telecom services to their customers, thanks to the latest decision by the Indian government to offer a unified license (UL). 

Until recently, companies that offer telecom services had to get a separate license for each service and for the regions in which they operated. This was time-consuming and cumbersome, so the Indian government decided to issue a unified license to telecom companies. Under these new rules, companies can apply for a single comprehensive license and they can even convert their existing licenses into a single one.

One of the major beneficiaries of these new rules is Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL), the telecom division of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). Recently, RJIL got a UL from the government of India to offer voice, Internet and other related services to its customers. Prior to this UL, RJIL was permitted to offer only 4G service, but not voice services over the existing Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum. However, all that has changed with this license. Henceforth, RJIL can offer unified services across all telecom zones in India.

To get this license, the company has spent more than Rs 1,600 crore for setting up the infrastructure. Earlier, the company had planned to roll out its 4G services by mid-2014. This plan is on track and the company is beefing up its 4G-LTE (News - Alert) technology to include voice in the 20 megahertz spectrum. The managing director of RJIL, Mukesh Ambani, is confident that this license will have a huge positive impact on the billion-plus citizens of this country.