Welcome back to our weekly roundup of all the news that matters from the world of technology. It's been a big week with a number of leaks and launches, and one of the highlights was the leak of the specifications[1] of Reliance Jio's[2] upcoming 4G VoLTE compatible feature phones. The Jio feature phone will supposedly have a 2.4-inch screen, and 512MB of RAM, along with a 2-megapixel rear camera, and will be able to access the Internet via 4G, and make calls using Reliance Jio's VoLTE network. Jio may reportedly offer the phones at a price between Rs. 999 and Rs. 1,500 by subsidising the handsets.
Besides this, TRAI data this week showed that Reliance Jio 4G download speeds hit an all-time high[3] in May. Jio recorded a download speed of 19.123Mbps, ahead of Idea[4] at 13.709Mbps, and Vodafone[5] at 13.387Mbps. A report by London-based wireless coverage mapping company OpenSignal also showed that Jio helped India to reach the 15th spot[6] for 4G availability. According to OpenSignal's "State of LTE" report, India had 71.6 percent 4G availability in the third quarter of 2016, which jumped to 81.6 percent in the first quarter of 2017.
Not everyone is pleased with Reliance Jio though - Kumar Mangalam Birla, in a letter to shareholders of Idea, said the telecom industry witnessed a 2 percent decline in annual revenues in 2016-17 fiscal, seemingly blaming Jio[7], even if he did not name the newest telco directly. And Airtel's complaint against Reliance Jio and RIL has been rejected[8] by the Competition Commission of India (CCI)[9]. The so-called Reliance Jio-effect meanwhile continues, as Vodafone has a new offer for Ramazan,...