Reliance Jio offers Google Gemini Pro for free to counter Airtel's Perplexity bet

Core Insights - Telecom operators in India are now competing not only in 5G but also for AI supremacy to capture market share [1][2] - Reliance Intelligence has partnered with Google to offer Jio users access to Google Gemini AI Pro for free for 18 months, valued at ₹35,000 [1][2] Telecom Market Dynamics - Telecom operators are expanding their market shares by introducing new digital services alongside traditional voice and data offerings, aiming to attract higher tariff-paying customers to increase average revenue per user (ARPU) [2] - Airtel currently leads the industry with an ARPU of ₹250, despite Jio having a larger subscriber base of 506.4 million, including 234 million 5G users [3] AI Initiatives - The rollout of Google Gemini Pro will initially target users aged 18-25 on unlimited 5G plans, with plans to expand access to all Jio customers [4] - Jio users will have access to advanced features in the Gemini app, including enhanced image and video generation capabilities and 2TB of cloud storage [5] Strategic Partnerships - Reliance Intelligence aims to make AI services accessible to 1.45 billion Indians through partnerships with Google and other strategic partners [7] - Reliance Intelligence is also positioned as a strategic partner for Google Cloud, promoting the adoption of Gemini Enterprise across Indian organizations [8] Enterprise AI Solutions - Gemini Enterprise is designed to integrate Google AI into business workflows, allowing teams to create and share AI agents [8][9] - Reliance is developing its own pre-built enterprise AI agents and has partnered with Google Cloud to utilize advanced AI hardware accelerators [9][10] Infrastructure Investment - Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) plans to invest $12-15 billion in AI infrastructure to develop a 1GW data center, which could become the largest facility of its kind globally [11] - RIL is also working on a significant AI computing infrastructure project in Jamnagar, Gujarat [10] Market Outlook - Analysts have upgraded the outlook for the telecom sector due to the expanding total addressable market (TAM) through products like fixed broadband and enterprise offerings [13] - The push for 5G is attracting premium customers, while new digital services such as cloud and AI are creating additional revenue streams for telecom operators [14]