Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) is betting big on its telecommunications arm following the success of Jio 4G in India. The industrial behemoth completed 40 years in the business and laid out some optimistic goals for the years to come. One of them is the launch of optic-fiber based broadband Jio Fiber with nationwide connectivity.
During the company's 40th annual general meeting (AGM) on Friday, RIL chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani revealed the company's plans to foray into the fixed-line high-speed broadband network. While we expected more on the subject, like a tentative roll out date, Ambani said the company is "well on track" to bring its high-speed 100Mbps broadband to all.
Read: How to book a Jio Phone for free? All you need to know
While keeping specifics to a minimum, Ambani dropped a major hint that JioFiber will be as big as Jio 4G LTE as the company sees it as the "next big monetisation opportunity." The infrastructure to execute broadband services is already in place, Ambani assured.
"Creating fixed-line high-speed broadband services is the next leap forward for our country. Jio remains well on track to bring world-class optic-fiber connectivity to enterprises, small businesses, homes and public spaces. Most of Jio's infrastructure for providing these services is already in place. This is the next big monetization opportunity for Jio. I will regularly apprise you of the progress we make in each of these areas," Ambani said during AGM on Friday.
JioFiber, which was earlier referred to as Jio GigaFiber has been in the news for several months now. The testing of the high-speed broadband is being carried out in select cities, including Chennai, Mumbai Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad, Jamnagar, Surat and Vadodara.
The beta-testing of the FTTH broadband in select cities has made progress and it's only a matter of time before a commercial rollout begins. Reports have also suggested that Reliance will offer the JioFiber on a trial basis for its consumers too with three months of free service, just like it did with Jio 4G during launch last year.
If the tradition is followed, we can expect severe disruption in the broadband space, where Airtel, BSNL and Act Fibernet are currently offering fully-fledged 1Gbps broadband services. No carrier has a nationwide coverage for their fiber-optic broadband, and Reliance Jio could change that if it launches JioFiber across India with competitive tariffs and offers.
