Mumbai, Dec. 18: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) will unveil its much awaited 4G service Jio on December 27, the eve of the birth anniversary of founder Dhirubhai Ambani.

However, the service will initially be available only to Reliance group employees. The commercial launch is likely to happen in March. Sources close to RIL said one of the objectives behind this move was to obtain feedback on the service quality and bring the necessary changes before the official launch.

After its second-quarter results, Reliance had said its network rollout had largely been completed and was being tested and optimised. The company plans to introduce a range of 4G smartphones under the "LYF" brand that will facilitate voice calls over the LTE (Long-Term Evolution) network.

In an email to its employees, RIL chairman and managing director Mukesh D. Ambani and non-executive and non-independent director Nita Ambani said the birth anniversary of founder Dhirubhai Ambani would be celebrated by the launch of its "truly transformational digital initiative-Jio''.

The launch event will be held at Reliance Corporate Park in Navi Mumbai on December 27. Inviting the employees along with their spouses, the note said the event would also be beamed live to more than 1,000 locations across the country. It will start at 5.30pm and entry is limited to the employees only.

"You can also join us virtually from your respective locations (manufacturing sites, state offices and Jio centres) and engage yourself in the surreal experience of Jio," the note said.

The buzz is that besides providing 4G SIMs to its employees, RIL is offering LYF smartphones at a discount.

Jio's impending entry into the country's highly competitive telecom market has already seen rivals such as Bharti Airtel announcing that its capital expenditure in network will rise 25 per cent to Rs 60,000 crore over the next three years.

Experts, however, fear that Jio will increase competition, leading to a fall in data tariffs as existing players try to maintain their market share.

"We expect competition to intensify as Reliance Jio, part of Reliance Industries, enters the market with likely cheaper and faster data-focussed tariff plans armed with sufficient spectrum and access to funds," Fitch Ratings said in a recent note.