Mukesh Ambani launches Reliance Jio: Ten big announcements

Storming his way into the telecom industry, India's richest man Mukesh Ambani on Thursday announced free voice calls and free national roaming along with rock-bottom data prices on his new Reliance Jio network that will debut on September 5.

Devoting two-third of his 90-minute speech at Reliance Industries' shareholder meet to make a slew of announcements on Jio, he took competition head-on by announcing free services on Jio for four months beginning September 5.

Here are 10 big announcements from the event:

1) All domestic voice calls for Jio customers will be absolutely free. Roaming charges will also be zero across India.

2) Jio aims to take India to the top 10 from current 155th position in the world for mobile broadband access.

3) Jio has created an all-IP network. There is only one language spoken on the Jio network. We will have a single digital mother tongue. The all-IP design also makes Jio's network the most expansive and future-proof network in the country. Jio is a data strong network built for the Internet from the ground up. By March 2017, we will cover 90 per cent of India's population. It is the first mobile network that is only 4G LTE.

4) The onboarding process will now be 100 per cent digital, using Adhaar-based e-KYC, starting today from Mumbai and Delhi. With instant e-KYC, customers will be able to walk out with an operational connection within 15 minutes.

5) Jio apps bouquet will be available complimentary up to December 31 2017.

6) Effective rate of data would be five paise per MB, or Rs 50 per GB.

7) All complex telecom charges, like black-out days, eliminated.

8) Jio's services will be free of cost to all users from September 5 to December 31, 2016.

9) Jio's commercial launch likely to be on December 31.

10) Special offers for students with 25 per cent more data.