Jio doubles down on UBR tech for home broadband, positions itself as India’s deep tech leader: Anshuman Thakur

Reliance Jio

Jio Platforms is leaning into its identity as a deep tech company as it aggressively scales its home broadband business using proprietary Unlicensed Band Radio (UBR) technology, aiming to connect millions of households without relying on last-mile fiber and licensed spectrum, which it uses for 5G FWA broadband

Anshuman Thakur, Senior Vice President at Jio Platforms, said the telco’s ability to build and deploy UBR-based fixed wireless solutions at scale gives it a critical edge in India’s high-demand, low-margin broadband market.

“Jio was born as a deep tech company. Over the years, we’ve developed one of the most advanced tech stacks in-house, and UBR is a global-first solution we’ve successfully commercialised at scale,” he said during the Q1 earnings presentation. “The target of 100 million subscribers seem much more doable in the near term based on the use of UBR technology.”

“With nearly 300–330 million homes potentially needing broadband, UBR gives us the ability to grow rapidly and cost-effectively.”

As of the June 2025 quarter, Jio has connected over 20 million premises, with 7.4 million on AirFiber, making it the largest fixed wireless access (FWA) provider globally, according to the company. A significant chunk of these connections rely on its UBR tech, which operates on unlicensed spectrum and avoids the costs and delays of fiber rollout.

Thakur said Jio’s UBR deployment is backed by an entirely self-owned software and hardware stack developed by JioLabs and its portfolio companies, a model that allows rapid scaling at low cost.

“Most global telcos have attempted similar solutions but failed to scale. We’ve proven this can work in millions of homes across India,” he said.

Unlike conventional 5G FWA, UBR allows dynamic bandwidth allocation, symmetric or asymmetric uplink/downlink configurations, and dedicated throughput up to 2.5 Gbps, comparable or even superior to fiber, Jio claims. The ease of deployment, requiring no civil infrastructure, makes it especially potent in urban and semi-urban areas where laying fiber is either unfeasible or cost-prohibitive.

Jio currently serves 498 million subscribers and 210 million 5G users, with data consumption rising sharply, averaging 37 GB per user per month.

Global operators are taking note, said Thakur. “There’s worldwide interest in how we’ve done this. Many are looking to replicate the UBR model,” he said, positioning Jio not just as a connectivity provider but as an emerging deep tech export story from India.

On the enterprise side, Thakur said Jio is gaining wallet share among large corporates, particularly in the BFSI and industrial sectors, with bundled offerings that include connectivity, security, and managed Wi-Fi solutions. “In several cases, we are now the only service provider for large enterprise accounts. It takes time to win this business, but our integrated stack and private 5G solutions are giving us a clear edge,” he said.

The company is also seeing strong demand for its IoT portfolio, especially in automotive and financial services, with differentiated offerings tailored to emerging use cases like quick commerce dark stores.

In the consumer segment, Jio is leveraging its 5G network to launch cloud-native services such as JioGames and JioCloud PC, which allow users to stream high-end games or access full computing power via the cloud without expensive hardware. The Jio AI Cloud now has over 33 million registered users, offering 200 GB of free storage along with integrated features like DigiLocker, photo management, and document storage.

“We are democratizing access to AI and cloud services. These offerings not only drive engagement but also enhance customer stickiness,” Thakur said.