Jio initially launched its 5G FWA service in eight cities across India
Indian telco Reliance Jio Infocomm announced the launch of its 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) service in eight cities across the country.
The new offering, dubbed JioAirFiber, will be initially available in the cities of Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune.
“Our extensive fiber-to-the-home service JioFiber, already serves over 10 million customers, with hundreds of thousands more getting connected each month. But there are still millions of homes and small businesses to be connected at a rapid pace,” said Akash Ambani, chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm.
Jio says that its optical fiber infrastructure currently spans over 1.5 million kilometers across India, putting the telco in close proximity to over 200 million premises. However, Jio noted that providing physical last-mile connectivity often ends up taking a lot of time in most parts of the country, leaving millions of potential customers without home broadband, due to the complexities and delays involved in extending fiber to their premises.
“With JioAirFiber, we are expanding our addressable market to rapidly cover every home in our country with similar quality of service,” the executive added.
Jio has also launched FWA plans under two categories – AirFiber, and AirFiber Max, with prices starting from INR 599 ($7.2) and with speeds of 30 Mbps.
Jio had previously started testing the device in some cities where its 5G services are fully operational. The devices had been sent to selected users, including some of the company’s employees, for testing, according to previous reports.
Reliance Jio Infocomm recently said it has created a dedicated 5G network slice for the provision of its 5G fixed wireless access solution. The Indian telco aims to reach 100 million connected premises in India with its FWA offering.
Rival telco Bharti Airtel recently said that its 5G-based Airtel Xstream AirFiber offering is already available for its customers in Delhi and Mumbai. The operator said that the new service, which will offer internet to consumers in fiber dark areas, will address the last-mile connectivity issue in both rural and urban India where access to fiber infrastructure is a challenge.
Airtel noted that Xstream AirFiber is a plug-and-play device, with built-in Wi-Fi 6 technology that will offer wide indoor coverage and can simultaneously connect up to 64 devices. Airtel said it plans to launch the service in multiple cities and scale up nationally in phases.
Reliance Jio Infocomm has been rapidly expanding its 5G network using Standalone (SA) architecture since October 2022. The telco has already deployed its 5G service in 7,543 cities across 36 states in India, according to the carrier’s website.
Reliance Jio had previously secured a mix of wireless spectrum for 5G across the 700 MHz, 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands. Jio is the only Indian operator with the 700 MHz low-band spectrum.
