Reliance Jio GigaFiber to launch in 1,100 cities, despite odds

Reliance Jio, which started accepting registrations for its broadband service from 15 August, said Jio GigaFiber registrations are live. 

The Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio, which announced its fibre-to-the-home service (FTTH) at Reliance Industries' 41st annual general meeting (AGM) in July, completed two years of operation this week. 

Reliance Jio is reportedly facing some resistance from local cable operators (LCOs), in extending crucial last mile connectivity in key markets. According to a report in The Economic Times, LCOs fear that they will not be able to compete with Jio, which could well disrupt the industry with its rock bottom offers, like it did in mobile services.

According to experts, last mile connectivity deployments would be critical for Jio to launch its greenfield fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband services. According to an ET report, this is especially important since every building needs to be physically connected, unlike in the mobile services business where towers are easily available and shared amongst telecom companies.

So far, the company has not specified any date for commercial roll-out of the broadband service. However, speculations suggest that the company may roll out the service around Diwali this year, which falls on 6 November.

Reliance Jio will reportedly bundle its own router, called Jio GigaRouter, with the service.

Jio GigaFiber will reportedly bundle smart-remote with voice command support. Once plugged to the TV, the set-top-box will allow users to make video calls.

According to the company, the bundled 'smart-remote' will support multiple Indian languages. The company, however, did not reveal which languages will be supported.

Interested customers can register for Jio GigaFiber on the company's official website Jio.com as well as on its official app MyJio. Registration is absolutely free.

To offer 1Gbps speed, can stream 4K videos10 / 16To offer 1Gbps speed, can stream 4K videos.

JioGigaFiber will offer speeds up to 1Gbps, according to the company. Reliance Jio claimed that users will be able to stream 4K videos and play VR games on the network.

Jio GigaTV set-top box is said to support voice commands. This means that users will be able to give voice commands to control playback of content.

Reliance Jio will not charge customers for installation of the GigaFiber broadband connection.

Installation of Jio GigaFiber is free, although reports claim that customers may have to pay a fixed security deposit.

Speculations suggest that Reliance Jio may charge customers 50 per cent less than what other operators charge in the market. At present, most other service providers charge from Rs700 to Rs1,000 per month. Based on current market tariff, Reliance Jio GigaFiber’s tariff plans may start at Rs500 per month.

Reliance Jio has already been running beta trials of GigaFiber broadband service since past few months. The company announced at the AGM in July that trials are on in tens of thousands of homes across the country.