Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries, has announced that the company will introduce its fixed wireless access service, Jio AirFiber, on September 19. Notably, Jio, boasting 50 million 5G subscribers, is firmly on course to achieve nationwide coverage with next-generation technology by December 2023, making it one of the world’s pioneers in developing 6G capabilities.
The launch of Jio AirFiber, coming shortly after rival Bharti Airtel’s commercial device release, is poised to significantly extend Jio’s potential market to encompass more than 200 million high-value residences and establishments over the next three years. Ambani made this announcement while addressing shareholders of Reliance Industries, Jio’s parent company, during a virtual annual general meeting held on Monday.
Ambani elaborated, “Our extensive presence of optical fiber brings us within close reach of over 200 million establishments. Nevertheless, providing the crucial last-mile connectivity remains a laborious endeavor in many parts of our country. This is precisely where JioAirFiber, our fixed wireless broadband offering, comes into play.” He also revealed that Jio currently boasts over 450 million subscribers.
The pricing details for this new service are yet to be disclosed. However, the introduction of this service is anticipated to boost the telco’s daily connections to 150,000, marking a tenfold increase from the 15,000 daily connections achievable with optical fiber alone, according to Ambani.
Ambani also highlighted Jio’s in-house developed 5G stack, featuring distinctive attributes like standalone 5G architecture, network slicing, carrier aggregation, and AI/ML capabilities. He emphasized, “Jio’s proprietary lineup of 5G radio equipment ranges from compact small cells to extensive tower-based radios, effectively addressing the complete spectrum of outdoor and indoor usage scenarios. Our unwavering commitment to continuous innovation positions us to be among the global pioneers in advancing 6G capabilities.”
Reliance Industries holds a prominent position as one of the largest contributors of global patents from India in the realm of digital technologies, Ambani noted. He further stated, “Therefore, in the forthcoming years, I envision Jio harnessing our homegrown tech stack to foster value creation and revenue expansion, both domestically and internationally.”
Ambani revealed that Jio’s 5G customer base has grown to 50 million since its launch in October 2022, adding that Jio 5G now covers over 96% of the country’s census towns. The telco is swiftly adding one 5G cell to its network every 10 seconds.
Ambani expressed his confidence that achieving nationwide Jio 5G coverage by December 2023 will constitute the fastest large-scale rollout of this magnitude anywhere in the world. Akash Ambani, chairman of Reliance Jio, stated that the telco is constructing a “revolutionary platform” that will transform how Indian enterprises, small businesses, and technology startups interact with the digital realm.
“Today, we are unveiling the Jio True5G Developer Platform, a comprehensive solution that amalgamates our 5G network, edge computing, and an array of applications and services. This platform empowers enterprises with the authority and flexibility to activate network slices as needed, deploy applications on Jio’s multifaceted Edge-compute locations, and access a diverse ecosystem of partner applications—all within a unified framework,” he declared.