RIL AGM: Jio to invest Rs 2 trn in 5G; pan-India rollout by Dec 2023
Mumbai: Announcing that Jio has deployed a standalone 5G stack rather than upgrading the existing 4G network to offer ultra-high speed internet, Reliance Industries Ltd chairperson Mukesh Ambani on Monday said the company had earmarked an investment of Rs. 2 lakh crores (Rs. 2 trillion) for the 5G network, and plans to roll it out across India by December 2023.
Addressing the RIL’s 45th Annual General Meeting (AGM) here, he said the company will launch the 5G high-speed services in key Indian cities by Diwali this year.
“To build our pan-India true 5G network, we have committed a total investment of Rs 2 lakh crore. Jio has prepared the fastest ever and most ambitious 5G rollout plan for a country of our size. Within the next two months. That is by Diwali, we will launch Jio 5G across multiple key cities, including metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata,” he said.
Subsequently, the company plans to increase Jio 5G footprint month-on-month until December 2023 to deliver Jio 5G to every town, every ‘taluka,’ and every ‘tehsil’ of the country, he said.
After buying spectrum worth Rs 88,078 crores in the recent auctions, RIL had said earlier this month that it is gearing up to roll out an advanced 5G network to make India a global leader in digital connectivity and solutions.
The company had emphasized that it is fully ready for 5G rollout in the shortest period, backed by a nationwide fiber presence, an all-IP network with no legacy infrastructure, an indigenous 5G stack, and strong global partnerships across the technology ecosystem.
He said that with 5G in place, Jio will launch billions of smart sensors with connected intelligence that will trigger the Internet of Things (IoT) and fuel the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
“It will connect everyone, every place, and everything with the highest quality and most affordable data,” he said.
Ambani said Jio made strong progress in fiber and FTTH deployment with a pan-India fiber-optic network of over 11 lakh route kilometers.
He said two out of every three new fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) customers are choosing JioFiber.
In about two years of commercial rollout of its fixed-line broadband services, Jio toppled 20-year-old state-run telecom company BSNL as the top service provider in the segment in January.
“India is ranked 138th in the world in fixed broadband adoption. Jio will take India to be among the top 10 globally in fixed broadband adoption,” Ambani added.
(VP)
