After hinting that it could launch its own cryptocurrency, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries' telecom subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocom is turning its focus on Internet of Things (IoT), a report in a financial daily stated.
The new telecom service provider has hired Ayush Sharma from Silicon Valley as senior vice president of engineering and technology. He will lead Jio's IoT, mobile computing, blockchain and artificial intelligence business units, a report in The Economic Times stated.
While Jio will use these technologies to develop consumer IoT products, it will initially largely focus on enterprise IoT applications. The firm will use these technologies in-house, in retail and logistics, Sharma was quoted as telling ET. To this end, the company is in talks with car makers and consumer durable firms, the report added.
“It will take at least around a year to enable consumer IoT, but the large focus is on enterprise IoT. We are working on specific use cases,†Sharma told ET.
Prior to joining Jio, Sharma founded his own venture Moto Jeannie in California, which provides connected transportation and industrial IoT services, his LinkedIn profile shows. He has previously worked at companies such as Huawei, Ericsson, and Cisco in the Valley.
On the consumer side, the company has already started providing its fiber to home (FTH) services on a trial basis.
Earlier this month, a report in Mint stated that Akash Ambani Reliance Jio’s chief strategy officer and the eldest son of RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, will lead the project for ‘JioCoin’. The company plans to hire 50 professionals to work on various blockchain products, the business daily had reported, citing one person in the know.