Jio Chairman Akash Ambani on October 22 announced that the telecom major is launching 5G WiFi services in high footfall areas such as educational institutes, religious places, railway stations, bus stands, commercial hubs and more.
Akash Ambani added that the Jio True 5G pilot beta trail has also been extended to Chennai and Nathdwara, Rajasthan. This is in addition to the JioTrue5G service, and the Jio Welcome Offer launched recently in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Varanasi.
"5G cannot remain an exclusive service to the privileged few or those in our largest cities. It must be available to every citizen, every home, and every business across India. This is a step in that direction to enable every Indian with JioTrue5G. Today, we have powered the first True5G-enabled Wi-Fi service at the holy town of Nathdwara and the temple of Lord Srinathji. With this, we will power many more such locations and allow them to trial our services. In addition, we welcome Chennai as our latest city to be added to Jio True5G Welcome Offer," Ambani said in a release.
This is widely being seen as 30-year-old Akash Ambani's first major announcement as Jio head after the RIL board appointed him Chairman, as per a regulatory filing on June 28. His elevation was announced along with news of Mukesh Ambani stepping down as the director of Jio.
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At the last RIL AGM on October 1, Mukesh Ambani told shareholders that Jio 5G aims to achieve three objectives:
— To build on the success of Jio 4G by introducing an even more advanced version of mobile broadband.
— Accelerate the roll-out of top quality, highly affordable fixed broadband services to hundreds of millions of locations in a very short period of time.
— Use this expanded broadband availability to further stimulate the adoption of connected solutions.
At the AGM, Akash Ambani spoke about the possibilities of Jio 5G, and said, "compared to traditional enterprise Wi-Fi networks, 5G networks provide better reliability, better coverage, better data security, higher scalability, and lower cost, especially in demanding situations. 'Factories of the future' and Industry 4.0, where reliability and performance are top-most concerns, will be powered by private 5G, working hand-in-hand with Operations and Information Technology."
Soon after the quarterly results, Mukesh Ambani, mentioned in a press release that the 5G rollout is progressing rapidly. “Jio has announced beta trial for its industry-leading Standalone 5G services and is making rapid progress for an ambitious and the fastest ever roll out of True 5G on pan-India basis.”
Strong performance
Reliance Jio Infocomm, a subsidiary of RIL's digital unit Jio Platforms, reported year-on-year (YoY) growth of 28 percent in its standalone net profit at Rs 4,518 crore for the September quarter. On a sequential basis, the profit grew by 4 percent.
The company recorded revenue of Rs 22,521 crore for the quarter under review, up 20 percent from a year ago. Sequentially, revenue increased by 3 percent. Performance was driven by higher net customer additions and an increase in average revenue per user.
Also Read | Reliance launches Android-powered budget laptop JioBook. Check price, other details here
Building blocks
On October 4, it was announced that Reliance Jio has officially announced its True 5G service in India. The Jio True 5G service will first be available as part of a beta trial in four cities ― Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Varanasi ― starting on Dussehra. It is expected to become the world’s most advanced 5G service, offering users unlimited 5G data with up to 1Gbps+ speeds.
Reliance Jio also announced that the beta trial service for other cities will be announced progressively as cities keep getting ready.
On October 17, Nokia announced that Reliance Jio has selected it as a key supplier to provide 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) hardware across the nation in a multi-year deal.
According to a press filing, under the agreement, Nokia will provide base stations, 5G Massive MIMO antennas with high capacity, Remote Radio Heads (RRH) that support various frequency bands, self-organizing network software, and base stations. The standalone 5G network that Reliance Jio aims to build will be able to communicate with its 4G network.
Reliance Jio on October 17 also announced its long-term strategic contract with Ericsson to roll out 5G Standalone (SA) in India, according to a statement from the company. The release said that this is the first partnership between Jio and Ericsson for radio access network deployment in the country.
The partnership aims to upgrade the network infrastructure, drive innovation, build a 5G ecosystem and deliver advanced services. The network will utilise Ericsson’s energy-efficient 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) products and solutions from Ericsson Radio System and E-band microwave mobile transport solution to maximize the benefits of 5G to CSPs and their customers for individual subscribers or enterprise and industry customers, according to the release.
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