Fibre-to-home the next big battleground for Jio
NEW DELHI: After disrupting the wireless telecom sector, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd is set to make fibre-tohome its next battleground, with the formal commercial launch likely towards end of this year.
“Jio’s main focus now is fibre to home...it has reached a sizeable base of wireless subscribers at 168 million...all efforts now are to successfully deploy wired internet to homes...the fullfledged commercial launch is likely to be announced on December 28, which happens to be late Dhirubhai Ambani’s birthday,” a person familiar with the development said seeking anonymity.
Jio has already initiated beta trials for its wired broadband service across a few locations in the country. It has offered free broadband across regions in New Delhi and Mumbai, with unlimited internet at 100 mbps for a security deposit of ₹4,500.
“We are still deprived as a nation from a fixed mobile standpoint...we have only about 18 million connected homes in India...we would like to see at least 200 million,” Mathew Oommen, president of network, global strategy and service development at Reliance Jio, had said at the CNBC’S Indian Business Leaders Awards.
Brokerage firm CLSA India expects a ₹4,000-crore boost to Reliance’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation in three years on the back of the roll-out of broadband internet services, a Bloomberg report said.
The low penetration of wired internet services is another factor that could boost Jio’s efforts.
According to Telecom Regulatory of India (Trai) data, as on December 31, India had only 21.28 million wired internet subscribers, compared with 424.67 million wireless internet subscribers.