Backlash over Reliance Jio's decision to charge voice calls
Reliance Jo's offer of one-time, 30-minute free talk time on top-up voucher may not be enough to pacify customers incensed by the 6-paise-per-minute charge on inter network voice calls.Jio.Com

India's Reliance Industries on Sunday said Qualcomm Inc's investment arm will buy a 0.15% stake in its digital unit Jio Platforms for 7.3 billion Indian rupees ($97.1 million).

The partnership will help Jio Platforms, the unit that houses Reliance's telecoms venture Jio Infocomm, to "rollout advanced 5G infrastructure and services for Indian customers," Reliance said in a statement.

Qualcomm, the 13th such investment in 12 weeks

The deal with Qualcomm — the 13th such investment in 12 weeks—means Reliance has sold 25.24 percent in Jio. RIL has now raised Rs 118,318.45 crore in total from some of the world's leading tech investors.

Facebook had bought a 9.99 percent stake for Rs 43,574 crore on April 22. Reliance has since sold stakes in Jio to global investors such as General Atlantic, KKR, Saudi sovereign wealth fund, Abu Dhabi state fund, Saudi Arabia's PIF and Intel.

Reliance Jio

Qualcomm is a San Diego, California, headquartered wireless technology company that specialises in 3G, 4G and 5G wireless technologies. Qualcomm's technologies and products are widely used in mobile devices and other wireless products.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon systems on a chip (SoC) is used by many leading smartphones. The company's technologies and products are also used in automotive, computing and IoT. Globally Qualcomm holds a large number of patents and the company also files the most number of patents in India.