Jio had said that its 5G FWA will have pan-India coverage within the first half of 2024

Indian operator Reliance Jio Infocomm is seeing demand for its 5G fixed wireless service (FWA), JioAirFiber, coming from tier-3 and tier-4 cities as well as from rural markets, local newspaper The Economic Times reported, citing Kiran Thomas, president of Reliance Jio Infocomm.

“You could argue that the big cities were reasonably well served through our optical fiber network. But as soon as JioAirFiber got launched, we are seeing demand getting unlocked from the tier-3 or tier-4  towns and rural markets, where this is a completely unique service,” Thomas said at Reliance Industries Limited’s recent quarterly earnings call.

The executive also said that for JioAirFiber, on a like-to-like basis against the JioFiber wired broadband service, the carrier is seeing per-capita usage “which is nearly 30 times more than our optical fiber service” primarily due to the content that is bundled with it.

Jio also said that its 5G FWA will have pan-India coverage within the first half of 2024. The carrier’s 5G FWA service is already available in over 4,000 towns and cities across India.

The telco had announced the launch of its 5G FWA service in eight cities across the country in September 2023. The service was initially launched in the cities of Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. Rival operator Bharti Airtel is also offering a similar service in selected cities across India.

Thomas also said that Jio will also support private 5G use cases for enterprises across India.

Reliance Jio Infocomm recently completed the rollout of 5G technology in India, local press reported, citing the company’s chairman, Mukesh Ambani. Ambani also claimed that the telco achieved the fastest 5G rollout globally.

Reliance Jio Infocomm has been rapidly expanding its 5G network using Standalone (SA) architecture since October 2022.

Reliance Jio had secured a mix of wireless spectrum for 5G across the 700 MHz, 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands. Jio is the only Indian operator with spectrum in the 700 MHz band.