Intending to put India among the top five nations in mobility and broadband connectivity, Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio) has unveiled a plan to expand its optical fibre network simultaneously across 1,100 cities.
The company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-helmed Reliance Industries (RIL), will offer high-speed broadband under the brand, JioGigaFiber.
RJio also unveiled JioPhone 2 priced at ₹2,999, which will be available from August 15, and launched a ‘Monsoon Hungama’ a scheme, under which existing feature phone users can exchange their feature for a new JioPhone for ₹501.
“In countries with better developed communication infrastructure, more than 80 per cent of data consumption happens indoors through fixed-line connectivity in homes, offices and other premises. Optical fibre-based fixed-line broadband is the future,” Ambani said, addressing shareholders at RIL’s 41st AGM.
“Fixed-line broadband offers hundreds of megabits, even gigabits per second of data speeds. Jio is determined to move India to among the top 5 in fixed-line broadband,” he said, adding JioGigaFiber, which is now undergoing beta trials in many many homes, would be the largest greenfield fixed-line broadband roll out anywhere in the world.
RJio, which has invested more than ₹2,50,000 crores to create digital infrastructure and now will extend this fibre footprint to homes, merchants, small and medium enterprises and large enterprises. Registrations for JioGigaFiber would start from August 15.
The digital initiatives of the company were then demonstrated by Ambani’s daughter Isha and son Akash.