Jio Fibre to Home offering unlimited broadband net with 100Mbps speed

The Mukesh Ambani-owned telecom operator is currently running trials at select locations and is expected to launch the services by the end of this year

In a speech made at Reliance Industries' annual general meeting last year, Chairman Mukesh Ambani had indicated that the group's telecom venture, Reliance Jio Infocomm, was on track to offer Jio Fibre to Home services and it would be the company’s next big monetisation opportunity. Now, according to a news report in Livemint, the telecom operator is expected to launch the wired fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband services by the end of this year.

Earlier last year, Reliance Jio had started testing the wired broadband services in select cities. In beta trials, the company has been offering unlimited internet data at 100Mbps speed at a security deposit of Rs 4,500. The company has also been providing a special router, which connects multiple devices, with a multi-service operator (MSO) licence in place to offer TV services.

According to an earlier report in Business Standard, Jio has been planning to leverage technology to resolve some of the problems of FTTH. For instance, it’s likely to use power-line communicators -- a small plug-and-play device that extends the strong WiFi signal to rooms far away from the router. While FTTH can get problematic in large homes and offices, and Jio has been working on a strategy to use the existing electric wiring to transmit data and TV signals across the house.

Though nothing has been officially confirmed, the wired broadband services from Jio are expected to launch with a preview offer – similar to how the company launched its Jio services -- with free access to JioFiber services for 90 days. Under the complimentary offer, the JioFibre broadband services might offer a broadband speed of up to 100 Mbps, besides free access to Jio premium applications and television services.

Reliance Jio’s competitor Bharti Airtel recently announced a new 300 Mbps FTTH broadband plan at a monthly rental of Rs 2,199. The new plan comes with up to 1200 GB of data, along with free unlimited local and STD calls. The new plan comes bundled with a free subscription to Airtel’s OTT apps -- Wynk Music and Airtel TV.

As a promotional offer, Airtel is also offering a one-year free subscription to Amazon Prime Videos and 1,000 GB of additional data per month valid until October 2018. The broadband plan comes with a data rollover facility, which allows users to carry forward unused data to the next billing cycle.

ALSO READ: Airtel to bring 300Mbps FTTH broadband plan with 1200 GB data: Details here

JioPhone 2, Jio GigaFibre, Jio GigaTV announced: Things you need to know

Mukesh Ambani said upgraded JioPhones will have social media applications such as YouTube and Facebook, along with instant messaging service Whatsapp.

Mukesh Ambani on Thursday announced the launch of JioPhone 2, Jio fixed broadband services (Jio GigaFibre) and Jio Digital TV services (Jio GigaTV set-top box) at the company’s 41st annual general meeting, which was held in Mumbai. The company also said its upgraded JioPhones will have social media applications such as YouTube and Facebook, along with instant messaging service Whatsapp.

JioPhone 2

Like JioPhone, the JioPhone 2 is also a KaiOS-based 4G VoLTE-enabled feature phone, but with a full QWERTY keyboard and a wide horizontal screen. The phone sports a 2.4 QVGA screen, 4-way navigation key with a dedicated key for voice commands, dual-SIM slots and microSD card slot. In terms of specifications, the phone boasts 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal space, expandable up to 128GB via microSD card. Powering the phone is a 2,000 mAh battery, and the phone features in-build FM, NFC, GPS and Wi-Fi. The JioPhone 2 will also have access to social media applications such as YouTube and Facebook, along with instant messaging service WhatsApp. The phone will be available starting from August 15 at an introductory price of Rs 2,999.

After running trials at select cities, Mukesh Ambani on Thursday announced Jio’s fixed-line broadband services, which would be launched in 1,100 cities simultaneously for homes, merchants and small and medium enterprises and large enterprises. According to the company, Jio GigaFibre services would offer internet speed of up to one gigabyte per second (Gbps). The company did not announce the launch date or plans, but interested users can register their interest for Jio GigaFibre services on Jio web portal starting August 15. The locality that shows major interest would be among the first locations to get Jio’s home broadband services, according to Mukesh Ambani.

ALSO READ: Broadband stocks fall as RIL announces launch of JioGigaFibre

Jio GigaTV

Jio’s digital television content services is a part of GigaFibre internet services. The GigaTV set-top-box would offer internet-based digital content services, along with access to Jio’s app suite. Interestingly, the set-top-box would also support a video calling feature, which would allow users to make video calls from their televisions. It is still to be seen how the feature would work as the televisions currently does not support camera, in-build or external. The GigaTV remote would be voice-enabled, which would make it work with voice commands – something similar to how the Amazon’s Fire Stick remote works.