jio 5G services will be launched this Diwali in India, in some of the major cities of the country.- The telco has branded its service Jio True 5G; Ambani is betting on the superior Standalone 5G network to deliver faster and more reliable 5G services to beat rivals Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
- Overall, Jio has pledged ₹2 lakh crore for its pan-Indian 5G rollout, which is expected to be completed by December 2023.
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani announced that Jio 5G will be launching this Diwali in India starting in India’s key cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
In December 2023, Ambani said that every city,
taluka and
tehsil over the 3.3 million square kilometers of land mass of India would be covered by Jio 5G.
“Jio 5G will be the world’s largest and most advanced 5G network. Unlike other operators, Jio’s 5G network will be standalone with no dependency on the 4G network,” said Ambani, who outlined the company’s ₹2 lakh crore capex for a pan-Indian 5G rollout.
“The triple advantage of Standalone 5G architecture, the largest and best mix of spectrum and carrier aggregation technology, means that Jio 5G can deliver an unparalleled combination of coverage, capacity, quality and affordability,” he added.
Standalone 5G vs Non-standalone 5G – which is better and why?
“Most operators are deploying some version of 5G or non-standalone 5G, which is essentially a 5G radio signal delivered over their existing 4G infrastructure,” Ambani says.
“This non-self-contained approach is a hasty way to nominally claim a 5G launch, but it cannot deliver the groundbreaking improvements in performance and capability that are truly possible with 5G,” he added, jokingly. lashed out at rivals Airtel and Vodafone Idea, who have opted for the cheaper option for now.
“With standalone 5G, Jio can deliver new and powerful services such as low latency, massive machine-to-machine communications, 5G voice, edge computing and network slicing. Jio 5G will be true 5G in every way, and I believe India deserves nothing less than true 5G,” said Ambani, who also explains the ‘Jio True 5G’ branding.
Jio AirFiber Delivers Cloud PC Services and More
Jio’s announcements today include a new service called Jio AirFiber, a gigabit home broadband solution that enables a wide variety of usage scenarios, including interactive sports entertainment, metaverse and virtual cloud PC access.
The telco’s Jio AirFiber service allows users to use a virtual PC hosted in the cloud – this service is called Jio Cloud PC and users can opt for the ‘pay as you go’ model instead of a subscription. While Microsoft and other cloud providers offer similar services, no other telco in India has a comparable service offering.
Leveraging Jio’s $11 Billion in 5G Spectrum Purchases
In the recently concluded 5G spectrum auctions, Jio raised airwaves worth $11 billion (₹88,078 crore) – more than double the amount spent by closest rival Airtel (₹43,084 crore).
Despite Jio spending 2x as much, Jio managed to acquire only 25% more spectrum than Airtel.
The main reason is Jio’s decision to go for the 700MHz band, which is expensive. Ambani says this combination of the 700 MHz, 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz mmWave spectrum is “best suited” to deliver high-quality and fast 5G services.
Ambani also revealed that Jio’s 5G stack is completely native and developed by the company’s 2,000 employees of engineers.
Google, Microsoft, Intel, Qualcomm and others join the Jio 5G bandwagon
For its broadband services, Jio is partnering with some of the world’s leading technology players for a ‘Made in India’ 5G partnership. The list includes companies such as Google, Microsoft, Intel, Qualcomm, Meta, and network equipment suppliers such as Nokia, Ericsson, and others.
For immersive technology, it is affiliated with Meta, allowing it to work on interactive IPL and other services in the coming years.
Jio is also working with Google to develop affordable 5G smartphones.
On the network side, Jio has also partnered with Qualcomm to develop 5G solutions for India. Ambani said that once this 5G rollout in India is proven, it could be brought to the rest of the world.
“As India celebrates 75 years of independence, with Reliance Jio we are committed to developing the digital infrastructure that enables the success of citizens and businesses and realizes the new India,” said Cristiano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm.
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