RIL 4G rollout could get delayed this April 2013: Report

RIL may not launch its 4G network later this year in December reports DNA. According to the report, the Jamnagar trials which were scheduled for April have been postponed till August. Furthermore, with no network agreements in place and no towers being set up, it is highly unlikely that the company will be able to launch the network before April.

The report quotes Rohit Chordia, senior analyst, Kotak Securities. According to him, RIL will probably take things slowly as it wants to build a large network and start off with a bang rather than with a just a couple of cities. He also notes that RIL’s network includes both voice and data, while Airtel is only building a data only network, hence RIL will need more time. He believes that RIL will adopt a wait and watch policy and the company will not mind a 15 to 20 percent initial loss, if the long term outlook would be good.
DNA cites sources who say that only intra-city fiber layout has started not inter-city. Plus, the fact that RIL will need to set up around 3,000 towers for a large city with one tower taking around ten days to set up. If RIL wants to set up a large network then it will need around a million towers and setting up so many towers in a short span will not be easy.