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Should you be excited about Jio offering broadband internet?

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DailyBite
DailyBiteMay 11, 2017 | 15:11

Should you be excited about Jio offering broadband internet?

Now that the Mukesh Ambani-led brand has firmly established itself as a major telecom player, Reliance Jio is planning to branch out into newer projects.

With its mobile wallet and smartphones already out in the market (besides DTH services, affordable VoLTE enabled feature phones, and an alleged 4G laptop in the making), Jio now turns to the next big step in its attempt to become the one-stop-shop for all things tech: broadband.

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Jio’s new broadband service, JioFiber, which is expected to roll out as early as June this year, will be first made available in select cities and later its reach will be expanded.

The Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) service was first mentioned by chairman Mukesh Ambani during the launch of Jio September 2016. According to a report in India Today, Jio has been testing its Fiber service in Mumbai and will also be conducting trial runs of the service in Delhi-NCR, Ahmadabad, Surat, Chennai and Jamnagar. The company is in the process of rolling out the home broadband service to other cities in the country as well, but no names have been specified as of yet.

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'The launch of Jio broadband service has been delayed due to the extension of Jio 4G commercial launches until March 31.'

"The launch of Jio broadband service has been delayed due to the extension of Jio 4G commercial launches until 31 March. We can expect Jio broadband launch date after March 2017," reads a note on the company website.

This undoubtedly is a major step in Jio’s plan to become a household name when it comes to internet. Jio’s 4G service is already a hit in the country. Despite initial hiccups, a slew of highly affordable plans (many of them were initially free) and a decent increase in their quality of service, Jio has proven itself to be a tough competitor to the likes of Airtel, Vodafone and Idea. And with JioFiber, cheaper internet at home/offices, will only add to that level of competitiveness.

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According to an NDTV report, several users who were part of the test phase (the JioFiber Preview Offer) have tweeted about their experience with the service and the reviews sound promising. While a Mumbai user reported in January that speeds varied between 70Mbps and 100Mbps on the 1Gbps connection, a Pune user, however, said that they received speeds of up to 743.28Mbps on the same.

Under the JioFiber Preview Offer, Jio will offer broadband services for free for 90 days as a complimentary service. Subscribers will get 100GB data per month at the speed of 100mbps. Once the limit is exhausted, the speed will lower down to 1mbps but with no limit on data consumption. Subscribers will also get access to Jio bouquet of services, including the 5GB cloud storage.

However, unlike the Jio Welcome Offer, where everything was free, even the SIM card, users will have to pay one-time fee of Rs 4,500 as an installation charge. The amount is refundable and will be refunded in case user decides to discontinue the service after the complimentary offer ends.

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All in all, the whole idea of Jio’s broadband service sounds promising as of now. Only time will tell just how good it turns out to be. But if Jio’s success with 4G is any indication, people will flock to it like ants on sugar. And if speeds stick, other service providers will obviously be forced to slash prices.

A win-win for all.

Last updated: May 11, 2017 | 15:11
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