Mumbai, Dec. 27: Reliance Jio today launched the 4G service for its employees under the Jio brand name on the eve of Reliance founder chairman Dhirubhai Ambani's 83rd birthday anniversary.

"On the 83rd birth anniversary of our founder, I wish to offer you Jio services from tomorrow (Monday),''Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries (RIL), told a gathering of Reliance Group employees at an event held at Reliance Corporate Park in Navi Mumbai today.

Around 35,000 attended the event and another 30,000 saw it live at Jamnagar in Gujarat. In all, the event saw a participation of over 1.50 lakh people across 1,100 locations.

It is understood that the commercial launch of Jio will happen around March.

Experts maintain that Jio's entry in the country's telecom arena is likely to be disruptive to the incumbents at least in the beginning.

Rivals such as Bharti Airtel has already announced that its capital expenditure in network will rise 25 per cent to touch Rs 60,000 crore over the next three years.

Addressing the large gathering, Ambani said the prime motivation for Jio was that 1.3 billion Indians could not be left behind.

"Jio is not about Reliance, it is about India and when it comes to India I am an eternal optimist,'' he said, adding that the business should also have a large purpose of serving the society.

Reliance had made elaborate preparations for the event, which saw Bollywood superstar and Jio brand ambassador Shah Rukh Khan taking the stage along with A.R. Rahman.

The event started with Kokilaben Ambani lighting the lamps. She was joined by Mukesh and Nita Ambani, non-executive and non-independent director of RIL, and their children Akash, Anant Ambani and Isha.

It is learnt that Anil D. Ambani and his wife Tina were also present, though it could not be confirmed.

Billed as the biggest employee launch, the event was beamed live on Jio's own high-speed digital network.

Sources said this was done to demonstrate the opportunities that a robust network could offer to enterprises and corporate houses in India, particularly to large distribution companies.

According to field trials by brokerage firm Credit Suisse, the download speed on Jio's 4G network during the beta test peaked at 70 megabytes per second.

By throwing open the services to all its business partners, employees and their families, RIL will make the optimal use of human resources to ensure that last-mile glitches will be smoothed out before Jio launches its commercial services.