Reliance Jio, the telecommunication service provider promoted by Mukesh Ambani, is gearing up to foray into the home broadband segment with the launch of Jio GigaFiber fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) internet service, which was announced at Reliance Industries' 41st Annual General Meeting. The pre-registrations for the service would begin from August 15 on Jio.com and My Jio app. However, the service is not expected to launch before the last quarter of this month.
At the RIL AGM, Ambani had announced that the Reliance Jio GigaFiber had already been under testing in several cities and it would launch simultaneously in around 1,100 cities for homes, small and medium businesses and big corporate houses. He had also announced that the pre-registration for Jio GigaFiber home broadband would open from August 15, and a location that receives most users’ interest would be among the first locations to get the service.
With the Reliance Jio GigaFiber service, the company is promising internet speed of up to 1Gbps. However, the company did not share some information like the preliminary connection cost, security deposit and details of monthly plans. But a recent news report in the Economic Times hints that the company would focus on volumes to drive demand. Therefore, it would offer broadband services bundled with DTH services at about Rs 500 a month, or effectively half the price of what other cable operators charge for similar services.
As for add-on features of the Jio GigaFiber, unlike most other broadband services, this would not be limited only to internet connection. The FTTH internet service would act as an underlying technology that would allow the company to foray into home automation, home surveillance, landline and cable television services. However, in the beginning, the broadband connection would have only internet services and Jio GigaTV service, which was also announced during the RIL AGM 2018.
The GigaTV set-top-box would offer internet-based digital content services, along with access to Jio’s app suite. Interestingly, the set-top-box would also support a video calling feature, allowing users to make video calls from their televisions. It is to be seen how the feature would work as the televisions currently do not support camera, in-build or external. The GigaTV remote would be voice-enabled, which would make it work with voice commands – something similar to how Amazon’s Fire Stick remote works.
 "Reliance Jio GigaFiber with GigaTV may cost Rs 500 a month; launch in Nov")
