MUMBAI: With the launch of Jio back in 2016, business tycoon Mukesh Ambani reshaped the telecom business in India by disrupting the tariff charges. Riding on the popularity of his telecom venture, the Reliance Industry Limited (RIL) chairman now looks set to set off yet another price war. Addressing his shareholders at the company’s 41st Annual General Meeting, Ambani announced the launch of its fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) fixed line broadband service - Jio Giga Fiber, the registration for which will begin on 15 August through the MyJio app and the Jio website.
“JioGigaFiber will be the largest greenfield fixed-line broadband rollout anywhere in the world,” said Ambani.
• The initial roll out of the service will start from areas with maximum registrations. The company plans to target 1,100 cities.
• Jio Giga Fiber service will be activated through a Jio Giga Router
• Besides the basic internet service, Jio Giga Fiber will be bundles with a Jio Giga TV set top box, offering more than 600 TV channels as well as over 1000 movies with enabled voice command feature for TV
• Another interesting feature is that of video calling through TV. Users can call any other TV connected through JioGigaFiber
• Other amenities include multi-party video conferencing from the living room, voice activated virtual assistants, virtual reality gaming and digital shopping and smart-home solutions
“Gone are the days of Mbps, now it will be about Gbps,” said Isha Ambani at the AGM.
The company has rolled out a trial service offering of unlimited internet at 100 mbps for 90 days along with a monthly data quota of 100 GB for a security deposit of Rs 4,500 for the Optical Network Termination (ONT) device. Those opting to disconnect the service will get a refund of the amount.
Anticipating another disruptive set of services from Jio, market leader Airtel has also set in motion the revamp its existing wired broadband connection solutions.
For the upcoming war with Jio, the telco has set aside Rs 24,000 crore for the financial year.
From current 89 cities, it wants to expand its service to 100 key cities targeting big data consumption zones. To cope up with competition, Bharti Airtel is also expected to bombard consumers with great offers.
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