Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) has successfully demonstrated what it claims to be India’s first satellite-based gigabit broadband service. The platform – named ‘JioSpaceFiber’ – enables Jio to provide high speed broadband services to ‘previously inaccessible geographies’ in India, and is currently available in four locations: Gir (Gujarat), Korba (Chhattisgarh), Nabarangpur (Odisha) and Jorhat (Assam). The satellite system also supports additional capacity for mobile backhaul, ‘enhancing the availability and scale’ of Jio’s 5G network. Jio notes that it has partnered with SES to provide the service, granting it access to the latter’s medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite constellation.

Meanwhile, Jio has also confirmed that it has deployed over one million 5G cell sites nationwide – including over 150,000 using both the 700MHz and 3500MHz bands – covering around 8,000 cities and towns. The operator also claimed that its 4G-enabled ‘JioBharat’ handsets had gained ‘substantial market share in the non-smartphone segment’ since its launch in July this year. The JioBharat initiative aims to encourage the migration of the roughly 250 million Indians using devices restricted to 2G networks to 4G-enabled handsets.