Reliance Jio Infocomm, India’s top telecom mobile operator, will launch its 5G services in key cities this Diwali in October, the company announced at its annual general meeting Monday. The company, which has amassed over 421 million subscribers, said it will extend its 5G network to “every town” in India by the end of 2023.
Reliance Industries’ Mukesh Ambani said Jio has built a standalone 5G architecture and will be using career aggregation technology to deliver high-speed internet services. The company also plans to launch the AirFiber, a wireless plug-and-play 5G hotspot that doesn’t require fiber cables to reach homes, it said.
“Jio has developed a JioAirFiber Home Gateway, which is a wireless, simple, single-device solution to have a Wi-Fi hotspot in a home, connected to ultra-high-speed internet using True 5G. With single device JioAirFiber, it will be real easy to quickly connect any home or office to Gigabit-speed Internet. With the simplicity of JioAirFiber, hundreds of millions of homes and offices can be connected to ultra-high-speed broadband in a very short period. With it, India can rank among the top-10 nations, even for fixed broadband,” the company said.
The announcement follows tycoon Ambani’s Jio — which counts Google and Meta among its backers — making the most aggressive bids to acquire 5G spectrum with spendings of $11.13 billion.
The company is working with Meta, Google, Microsoft, Intel and Qualcomm to broaden their joint collaborations, Ambani said.
Jio Platforms is looking to offer a range of sophisticated offerings including simultaneous camera-viewings for live cricket matches, it said. Viacom18 — a venture between Ambani’s Reliance and Paramount — scored the streaming rights for Indian Premier League cricket tourney in the Indian subcontinent region with a bid of $3 billion recently, beating rivals including Disney. The company is also exploring 5G applications in virtual reality, augmented reality, healthcare and agriculture, said Ambani.
Reliance is also venturing into the business of cloud PC, with a service called Jio Cloud PC, Ambani said. “With no upfront investment or tension of periodical upgrading, a user needs to pay only to the extent used, resulting in a super-affordable way to bring the power of a PC, even multiple PCs, to every Indian home and business,” the company said.
This is a developing story. More to follow…
