Cisco and Reliance Jio Recognized as “Best of the Best” at Mobile World Congress

The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is always an exciting gathering of technology leaders showcasing the latest in mobile technology, and previewing what’s coming down the line. With so many innovations on display, I was proud to see a big win by Cisco Services and our service provider partner Reliance Jio in India. Our joint solution for mobile broadband and digital services won the Global Mobile Award (GLOMO) for Best Mobile Operator Service for Consumers.

Rajiv Asati, Vijay Bollapragada, Joe Cozzolino, and Matthew Oomen

The GLOMO awards represent “the best of the best in mobile,” so I’m very proud of this award—not just because it’s a win for Cisco, but because it represents a huge leap forward in helping to bridge the global digital divide.

Just a year and a half ago, Jio launched the world’s largest all-IP network in close partnership with Cisco. This initiative has propelled India to be #1 in mobile data usage in the world, with the most affordable customer experience. The GLOMO judges commented, “Affordable and accessible, this partnership is driving digitization while reducing the cost per gigabyte by 93 percent.”

Our joint solution with Jio brings affordable services such as mobile broadband to a wide swath of customers that have never had access before. For most people in India, their cell phone is their only link to digital services. Jio’s strategic partnership with Cisco has spanned across multiple technology areas including IP/MPLS, data center, integrated mobile core, service provider Wi-Fi, contact center, security, and enterprise IT.  Cisco Services has worked closely with Jio since 2012 to make the network a reality. The project exhibited two key characteristics:

Architecture: Jio has deployed the largest end-to-end all-IP network in the world. This network demonstrates Cisco’s proven ability in strategy, architecture, and design of large-scale service provider network infrastructures.

Implementation: With Cisco’s proven ability to drive accuracy and speed using automation, Jio was able to quickly deploy, configure, operate, and maintain 150,000+ routers across India in record time.

Cisco Services Distinguished Engineer Rajiv Asati has been working with Jio from the beginning to spearhead the architecture and design of this project. He commented, “For us, this project has not only been about developing a world-class mobile network infrastructure strategy, architecture, and design, but also about joint innovation and ownership.” The network has already enabled the rapid growth of mobile data consumption from 500 MB to 10 GB per month per user.

Vijay Bollapragada, CTO for Cisco’s Global Service Provider organization in Asia-Pacific and Japan, and Krishnaji Panse, lead architect for automation, hit the ground running by executing on the fastest network build-out  in Cisco’s history. In their words, “This project has been once in a lifetime opportunity to transform the lives of a billion people.” They compare the project to building the Taj Mahal of Digital India.

“This project has been once in a lifetime opportunity to transform the lives of a billion people.”

The team who worked on this project kept the innovation spirit high on so many fronts. As Tareq Amin, SVP, Technology Development and Automation for Reliance Jio, said during Mobile World Congress, “Jio chose Cisco not only because of its technology & products, but more importantly for its alignment on vision & people.”

“Jio chose Cisco not only because of its technology & products, but more importantly for its alignment on vision & people.”

Congratulations to the entire team. Together, we continue to be committed to Reliance Jio’s success, and India’s digital transformation.

Joe Cozzolino, Woody Sessoms, Yvette Kannouf, Jagbir Singh, Chuck Robins, Matthew Oomen, Tareq Amin