The company is also working with Google on an “ultra-affordable” 5G handset, said its chairman
With its 5G spectrum auction behind it, the government of India is putting the pressure on regional Communication Service Providers (CSPs) to quickly spin up 5G service for Indian consumers and businesses, setting an October deadline. India’s largest telco, Reliance Jio, isn’t wasting any time or money to make it happen. The company said at its annual shareholders meeting on Monday that it will invest 2 trillion Indian rupees (US$25 billion) on its 5G rollout, and plans to reach every Indian town with 5G service by the end of 2023.
According to local reports, Mukesh Ambani told investors that Reliance Jio will activate 5G service first in the cities of Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai by the festival of Diwali, which happens this year in late October. Ambani is the billionaire chairman and managing director of Reliance Jio parent company Reliance Industries.
Ambani also announced a partnership with Google to bring to market an inexpensive 5G handset more in line with regular Indian consumers’ income. It isn’t the first time the company has announced such plans; Google and Jio have previously collaborated on a 4G handset for Indian consumers. Google is an investor in Reliance Jio, as is Facebook parent Meta. Ambani stopped short of announcing the price, but said it would be “ultra-affordable.”
The Indian government has officially allocated spectrum to CSPs and government officials are urging operators to deploy quickly. India’s telecommunications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw indicated previously that the government anticipates 5G service to be available in select areas in the country starting on October 12. That puts Reliance Jio on track to meet the government’s expectations.
Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, called 5G a “$450 billion opportunity” for Indian telcos and tech firms in the decade to come. In total, Indian carriers spent $19 billion to lock down 5G spectrum in the government auction. Reliance Jio holds the lion’s share of spectrum, after spending $11 billion. Airtel won spectrum worth $5.4 billion, while Vodafone received spectrum worth $2.4 billion. Finally, Adani purchased spectrum worth approximately $27 million, which it will use to offer private 5G network services.
Since arriving on the scene in 2016, Reliance Jio has been a significant market disruptor for Indian telecom. The company is credited with driving down prices for mobile services for Indian consumers. It’s now the nation’s largest CSP, with more than 421 million subscribers on its LTE network, or about 36% market share. Competitors AirTel and Vodaphone hold about 32% and 22% of the market, respectively.
Reliance Jio’s 5G network is a greenfield deployment that’s been in active development for several years. Reliance Jio has previously touted the network’s domestic bonafides, using home-grown tech and talent. 5G deployment will also be the launching point of home broadband connectivity, Ambani said. He touted to investors the company’s new 5G hotspot hardware and predicted that 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) will enable “hundreds of millions of homes and offices” in India to connect “to ultra-high-speed broadband in a very short period.”
