If you are awaiting for the launch of Reliance Jio services this December then you will be disappointed once again. It is reported that company’s pan-India 4G launch plans, which have been in the works since acquiring spectrum in 2010, appear to have been pushed further to its FY2016-17, which starts 1 April next year.

Reliance Jio to start operation from fiscal year 2016-17

It was announced by Reliance Jio to launch its pan India services by December 2015 after extensive beta launch of the services for testing and improvement, but it said in a stock exchange filing that the “financial year 2016-17 is projected to be the first year of commercial operations for RJIL”. It means that they will be commencing full launch only in next year from April. Company also informed that they are going to further enhance beta launch to optimize network and platform so that they can roll out commercial services with more confidence.

Its long-anticipated 4G service launch has been pushed back a number of times. And this delay will certainly take away the first mover advantage as rival like Airtel which has already launched 4G in most of its circle and Vodafone is in process to launch are gearing up fast to increase their 4G footprints.

However, being one the biggest start up ever in India, their delay perfectly makes sense due to its sheer size and enormous scale. They are the first operator to obtain a pan-India unified license, holding 751.1MHz across the 800MHz, 1.8GHz and 2.3GHz bands, and has invested a reported $15 billion in the rollout. It is also deploying 300 small cells per day and plans to increase it to 1,700 small cells in order to meet its long-term goals. There is plan to have deployment of 150,000 small cell, which is largest such deployment in the world.

Jio’s network strategy also includes more than 100,000 macro sites, 500,000+ Wi-Fi access points and more than 234,000 Kilometres of fiber to be deployed in the next three years.