Reliance Jio Phone 2, Jio GigaFiber pre-bookings start on Aug 15: Know more

Jio Phone 2 and Jio GigaFiber home broadband services were announced at the Reliance Industries 41st Annual General Meeting, which was held in Mumbai on July 5

Reliance Jio Infocomm, a Mukesh Ambani-owned telecommunication operator, announced the Jio Phone 2 and Jio GigaFiber home broadband services at the Reliance Industries 41st Annual General Meeting, which was held in Mumbai on July 5. While Reliance Jio confirmed the price of the Jio Phone 2, it did not reveal the GigaFiber connection cost or plans detail. However, the company announced that the pre-registrations for both the feature phone and broadband connections would start on Jio.com and Jio mobile app from August 15.

Here are things to know about the JioPhone 2 and Jio GigaFiber home broadband service:

Jio GigaFiber

The Reliance Jio GigaFiber is a fixed-line broadband service, which would be launched in 1,100 cities simultaneously for homes, merchants and small and medium enterprises and large enterprises. According to the company’s claim, the Jio GigaFiber would offer internet speed of up to one gigabyte per second (Gbps). The company did not announce the launch date or plans, but interested users can register their interest for Jio GigaFiber services on Jio web portal starting August 15. The locality that shows major interest would be among the first locations to get Jio’s home broadband services, according to Mukesh Ambani.

Unlike most other broadband services, the Jio GigaFiber would not only be limited to internet connection. The fibre-to-the-home (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 be limited to internet services and Jio GigaTV service, which was also announced during the RIL AGM 2018.

Jio GigaTV

Jio’s digital television content services is a part of GigaFiber internet services. 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, which would allow users to make video calls from their televisions. It is to be seen how the feature would work as the televisions currently does 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 the Amazon’s Fire Stick remote works.

Jio Phone 2

Like JioPhone, JioPhone 2 is also a KaiOS-based 4G VoLTE-enabled feature phone, but with a full QWERTY keyboard and a wide horizontal screen. The phone sports a 2.4 QVGA screen, 4-way navigation key with a dedicated key for voice commands, dual-SIM slots and microSD card slot. In terms of specifications, the phone boasts 512MB of RAM and 4GB of internal space, expandable up to 128GB via microSD card. Powering the phone is a 2,000 mAh battery and the phone features in-build FM, NFC, GPS and Wi-Fi. JioPhone 2 will also have access to social media applications such as YouTube and Facebook, along with instant messaging service WhatsApp. The phone will be available from August 15 at an introductory price of Rs 2,999.