Reliance Industries is planning to offer 4G broadband services by early next year and scale it up to a countrywide network by the middle of 2012.

Reliance Industries is planning to offer 4G broadband services by early next year and scale it up to a countrywide network by the middle of 2012.   The Economic Times reports that the company plans to offer 4G-enabled data cards, apart from providing tablets at a very low price of 3,000 Rs  ($61.4) or even lower to hook customers.

RIL has selected TD-LTE for rolling out its nationwide BWA network. Last year RIL showcased the results from its first field trial of TD-LTE technology using ST Ericsson dongles.

RIL is reported to be in talks with Ericsson, Huawei and Alcatel-Lucent after finishing trials with equipment provided by all the three, although it is not yet clear if it intends to select a single vendor or split the contract between multiple partners.

Last year Maravedis has predicted that RIL will have a tough time launching a commercial BWA service using TD- LTE in India until the end of 2011. See blog for more.

RIL had acquired Infotel Broadband Services (P) Ltd, which had emerged as a successful bidder in all the 22 circles of the auction for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) Spectrum conducted by the DoT, India.