There is no doubt that Jio has transformed the telecom market in India and now it is looking to do the same in other industries too. At 41st AGM, Mukesh Ambani announced the launch of Jio GigaFiber, which is an ultra-high speed fixed line broadband service, for homes and offices. Reliance aims to capture 50 million homes across 1100 cities with this new service. The registrations for Jio GigaFiber will start on August 15, 2018.

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While customers are excited to use GigaFiber, rivals companies such as Airtel and MTNL are planning their business model for cutthroat competition. Airtel has already reduced its prices for broadband services and is offering unlimited data. In some areas, Airtel has removed its fair usage policy (FUP) limits for the broadband customers.

MTNL, on the other hand, is offering free 3G connection and data up to 10 GB with its broadband connection.
Existing players in the cable industry admit that Reliance will bring in heavy but healthy competition in the industry that in the end will be beneficial for customers.

“Jio has been in the wireless space earlier, and that has always been the focus area in the Indian market whereas wired broadband service has been out of focus both from the consumers’ as well as the investors’ side,” said Kerala Communicators Cable Ltd (KCCL) CEO, Shaji Mathews. “A company like Reliance considering this as a focus area makes wired broadband and cable TV important, which is good for the sector. The government and the financial institutions have been neglecting this sector for a long time,” he added.

The situation is challenging for the existing companies as Jio GigaFiber set up box is offering broadband as well as the Cable TV services to consumers. It will be very interesting to see how they will face the entry of Reliance as Reliance already has a huge consumer base with its other products.

There is no doubt that Jio GigaFiber will increase broadband consumption in India. Companies will have to do much more to match competition. New players are expected to enter the market soon with huge investments.

Jio GigaFibre will offer ultra HD entertainment on large screen TVs, multi-party video conferencing from living rooms, voice-activated virtual assistants, virtual reality gaming, digital shopping and immersive experiences. Customers will get a router, set-top box, and fixed-line phone, among other things on buying GigaFIbre.

Trials for Jio GigaFibre began in 6 cities namely Ahmedabad, Delhi-NCR, Jamnagar, Mumbai, Surat, and Vadodara in May 2017.