Key Highlights from Reliance AGM 2019: JioFiber Rollout & More

Here’s everything that Reliance Jio announced about the JioFiber service, launch date and its benefits.

Reliance Jio now leads the Indian telecom sector.

(The Quint)

Since its commercial launch on 5 September 2016, Jio now caters to a subscriber base of 340 million in India. It's the largest telecom operator in India and the 2nd largest in the world.

The company is looking to reach the 500 million mark, which it's expected to hit in the next 12 to 15 months time. But with its mobile target more or less achieved, Jio is now putting all its efforts on building the broadband segment in the country.

Here’s everything that Jio announced with regards to JioFiber and its mobile network at the Reliance AGM 2019 on Monday.

As highlighted by Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance, the company is now focusing on setting up four pillars based around its internet ecosystem. These are Internet of Things (IoT), Home Broadband Service, Enterprise Broadband Service and Broadband for SMBs. The first pillar, JioFiber, will be commercially available starting from 5 September.

Interestingly, Jio’s home broadband network will be complemented by its own TV streaming service. The service will be made available via local cable operators who'll be streaming through a 4k setup box by Jio.

In terms of speed and other benefits, JioFiber will offer data speeds up to 1Gbps, provide the customer with a landline phone, and promises to offer ultra high-definition (4K) entertainment and virtual reality content.

For offices, the internet will provide multi-party video conferencing, interactive online gaming, home security and smart home solutions as well. The set-top box doubles as a gaming console. You can play PS4 and Xbox level gaming online with zero latency.

With JioFiber, you won't have to pay for voice calls. The pricing for Jio Fiber will be between Rs 700 Rs 10,000.

For mobile users, Jio announced a slew of calling plans. It has added international (ISD) plans for US and Canada that can be availed at Rs 500 per month. More details about this plan will be available on Jio.com and MyJio app in the coming days.

But it seems, Jio is gunning for everyone, including movie theatres. For this, JioFiber will offer subscriptions for top video streaming platforms to those signing up for its broadband plan.

Also, Jio announced that users can get access to some movies on the same day that they release in theatres.

To stream all this content, people opting for the annual plan of JioFiber will not only get the streaming service, but they will be given a free HD or 4K TV for free with a 4K set top box.

Moving on, Jio also announced its partnership with Tesseract, a tech startup that came up with a mixed reality headset which The Quint got access to few months back and we made a video demonstrating the device as to how users will be able to use Jio's high-speed internet with mixed reality.

Besides JioFiber, the company has also partnered with Microsoft to set up data centres in India and will also provide access to its suite of Office apps. It has offered incentives for small business by offering them free cloud services. All of this will be available to startups starting at Rs 1,500 per month.

Having seen all of these announcements at the event, we were slightly surprised that the company didn’t launch the JioPhone 3 at the keynote.