Reliance Jio seeing strong adoption of JioAirFiber: Kiran Thomas

Customer demand and engagement have been strong with JioAirFiber’s unique proposition as an entertainment-first product bundled with broadband connectivity, the company said.

Reliance Jio said that the increasing adoption of its 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) service, JioAirFiber, and Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) service, JioFiber, will boost its strategy to aggressively tap the home segment.

“Tier 2 and tier 3 towns have been the areas where demand has been the greatest [for JioFiber], but reaching optical fibre to those towns is time-consuming, but with AirFiber available in thousands of cities, we are seeing strong adoption. This increased distribution and presence mean our whole strategy will see an accelerating momentum into the future,” Kiran Thomas, president at Jio Platforms, said during the Q4 briefing call.

Jio’s fixed wireless access (FWA) service, JioAirFiber, is now being offered across ~5,900 cities/ towns, with further ramp-up towards pan India coverage soon.

The telco said that customer demand and engagement have been strong with JioAirFiber’s unique proposition as an entertainment-first product bundled with broadband connectivity.

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Thomas said that Jio sees nearly 400 GB monthly usage per user on JioAirfiber.

“Average daily data usage for AirFiber subscribers is at ~13 GB, 30% higher than JioFiber subscribers. Network slicing on Standalone 5G network and Jio’s unique point-to-multipoint deployment is transforming fixed broadband infrastructure in India,” it said in the statement.

Reliance Jio is also focusing on the small business segment through its JioFiber and JioAirFiber services. “Small business is an underserved area. Like media bundling, we are going to small businesses with bundles that are relevant to them,” Thomas said.

Jio is focusing on four verticals: hospitality, small manufacturers, schools/Colleges, and hospitals. It is bundling various digital solutions like managed Wi-Fi, Coud compute, and IoT surveillance with its connectivity services.

“Continued acceleration in the growth of JioAirFiber subscriber base and ramp-up of digital services will sustain industry-leading growth for Jio,” Akash M Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm, said in a statement.

The telco’s pan-India True5G network now has over 108 million subscribers. Jio’s 5G network now carries over 28 percent of the telco’s wireless data traffic, with the entire 5G data being carried on its own 5G+4G combo core.