Jio also said its 5G FWA offering is already available in nearly 5,900 towns and cities in India
Indian carrier Reliance Jio Infocomm has rolled out its 5G network across India, with over 108 million subscribers in the country, the telco said in its earnings report.
The telco noted that Jio’s True 5G network now carries nearly 28% of Jio’s wireless data traffic.
Meanwhile, the company’s 5G FWA offering, JioAirFiber, is now being offered across nearly 5,900 towns and cities across India, Jio said.
Average daily data usage for AirFiber subscribers is at 13 GB, which is 30% higher than JioFiber subscribers, the telco added. Kiran Thomas, chief executive officer of Jio Platforms and president of Reliance Jio Infocomm, noted an increase in demand of Jio AirFiber from tier-3 and tier-4 towns, besides rural markets.
During the first quarter of the year, Jio added 10.9 million subscribers, taking its total subscriber base to 481.8 million.
Akash Ambani, chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm, said: “Jio continues to maintain its network leadership and offer innovative digital solutions to multiple customer cohorts. This is driving consistent outperformance in terms of subscriber additions and engagement levels. Continued acceleration in growth of JioAirFiber subscriber base and ramp-up of digital services will sustain industry-leading growth for Jio.”
Reliance Jio Infocomm has been rapidly expanding its 5G network using Standalone (SA) architecture since October 2022. Meanwhile, rival operator Bharti Airtel previously said it was on track to cover the entire country with 5G technology by March 2024.
India completed its first 5G spectrum auction in July 2022. Reliance Jio walked away with the most spectrum, having spent $11 billion. Airtel won spectrum worth $5.4 billion, while Vodafone received spectrum worth $2.4 billion. Finally, Adani purchased spectrum worth approximately $27 million, which it will use to offer private 5G network services.
The government of India recently confirmed that the upcoming 5G spectrum auction is slated to start in June. In this new auction, 5G airwaves in 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, 2.3 GHz, 2.5 GHz, 3.3 GHz and 26 GHz bands will be put up for sale.
According to sources with knowledge of the matter, the auction will only draw a few bids from Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) for renewing their frequencies.
The permits of Bharti Airtel and Vi will expire in 2024 in some of India’s geographic circles. Airtel’s airwave renewals this year are in the 900 MHz and 1800 MHz bands in the circles of J&K, Odisha, Bihar, UP-East, West Bengal and Assam. Vi faces spectrum renewals in West Bengal (900 MHz and 1800 MHz) and UP-West (900 MHz).
Earlier this year, the DoT confirmed it will not auction the 600 MHz band in the upcoming spectrum auction, as the body aims to conduct more studies to ensure there is no interference with satellite operations.
