{"id":3487,"date":"2016-09-13T01:49:53","date_gmt":"2016-09-12T20:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/?p=3487"},"modified":"2021-12-13T14:11:58","modified_gmt":"2021-12-13T08:41:58","slug":"reliance-jiofi-first-impressions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/13\/reliance-jiofi-first-impressions\/","title":{"rendered":"Reliance JioFi First Impressions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jiofi\"<\/a>I purchased a Reliance\u00a0JioFi Portable 4G Pocket WiFi Router<\/em><\/strong> two days ago.<\/p>\n

Here are my first impressions of the product and the onboarding process.<\/p>\n

#1. Scrappy, But Formless, Onboarding<\/strong><\/p>\n

There is no Jio store.<\/p>\n

All leading telecom companies in India like Airtel, Idea and Vodafone have a retail presence. But not Jio – at least no stores I could spot.\u00a0Existing Reliance Web World outlets belong to a different side of India’s largest business conglomerate and don’t sell Jio products (in fact they compete with Reliance Jio).<\/p>\n

If you thought Jio has gone totally online, that’s not correct. You do have to visit a store to sign up for Jio and pick up the SIM card. Just that it’s the store of Reliance Digital<\/em>, which is a leading electronics goods retailer. While this is mentioned on the Jio website, many people have missed it. I know some diehard Reliance fans who, when they didn’t spot any Jio stores, thought that Jio hadn’t yet launched in their city.<\/p>\n

Jio’s presence inside the Reliance Digital store – at least the one that I visited in a nearby mall – is totally makeshift. One table, one chair and one attendant wielding a smartphone – that just about describes Jio’s entire retail presence. Scrappy to say the least.<\/p>\n

I first bought the JioFi WiFi Router from the mobile section of the store and then went over to the Jio section, where I was asked to join a queue. While the length of the queue wasn’t daunting – there were fewer than 20 people on it – it moved at a snail’s pace. It took me three hours to reach the said table. After that, the transaction got over in a few minutes, I received the SIM card and walked out of the store.<\/p>\n

Most notable feature of Jio’s onboarding process is that it’s totally formless<\/em> – no form to fill either online or on paper. You show your Aadhaar Card to the attendant who enters the Aadhaar number into a mobile app and asks you to place your finger on a fingerprint reader. If all works well – which, in my case, it did only on the third attempt – your identity and address are both verified online within a few seconds.<\/p>\n

This is my first experience of buying\u00a0a product \/ service of this nature without\u00a0paper, form or wet ink signature – in India or anywhere else in the world.<\/p>\n

For that alone, Reliance Jio deserves major props.<\/p>\n

#2. 12 Hour Activation<\/strong><\/p>\n

I noted that Jio didn’t talk about doing any feasibility testing of 4G strength at my address before selling its product. This was a bit surprising because another leading MNO had earlier conducted a feasibility test at my home and refused to sell its 4G broadband product since the distance to the nearest cell tower exceeded its upper limit. In fact, I kept my fingers crossed, wondering if Jio 4G would have enough signal strength at my home.<\/p>\n

After reaching home, I installed the SIM card into the router and powered it on. A few seconds later, the LED display flashed “No 4G”. I thought my worst fears had come true. I anyway went ahead and called the given\u00a01800 telephone number for televerification, as advised by the guy at the store.<\/p>\n

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Is @VodafoneIN<\/a> blocking calls to @reliancejio<\/a> activation telephone #? I've been getting a "Network Busy" message for the past 2 days.<\/p>\n

— Ketharaman Swaminathan (@s_ketharaman) September 12, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n