Financial firm JP Morgan termed JioGigaFiber, Reliance Industries' 'the next big thing from Jio' after Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, launched the company's broadband internet service.

The fibre-to-the-home product will roll out in 1,100 cities of India simultaneously.

Most of the AGM focused on JioGigaFiber as the company plans to launch the product later this year, observed JP Morgan.

The trials of the service product are on the run across many cities as of now. The registrations for the same will be available from August 15 on myjio.com and jio.com.

The financial firm expects the product to be 'a bundled offering, across broadband and set-top box for television.'

Also read: Full text of Mukesh Ambani's speech at the RIL AGM

Even though there are no details on the pricing yet, "our view is, given Jio's customer acquisition strategy, that the launch pricing should effectively be at a large discount to current broadband and set-top box pricing prevalent," JPMorgan said in a report.

Ambani, along with the launch of JioGigaFiber, launched the JioPhone 2 and discussed the company's developments ranging from oil to media.

On the subscriber base of Jio, Ambani mentioned that the subscriber base currently stands at 215 million, implying that approximately 26 million subscribers have been added in the first quarter of the year.

The subscriber base has picked up sharply since last year, JP Morgan said.

Also read: Key things Mukesh Ambani said at RIL's AGM

The subscriber addition averaged approximately 5.5 million in March and December 2017. The tariff cuts and JioPhone has allowed RIL's telecom subsidiary to gather a larger share of the subscribers, it said

Based on this, JPMorgan said given the Jio handset target and the cut in Jio handset price, the financial firm expects no tariff hikes this year.

On Reliance Retail, Ambani highlighted the importance of merging online and offline businesses. The financial broker said that separate monetisation for the retail unit of Reliance is unlikely.

On the company's refining business, RIL pointed out the benefits it can receive from the upcoming the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) fuel standards where it is expected that the company will gain from tighter specs for bunker fuel given its refinery complexity.

Also read: What Mukesh Ambani said on Reliance Retail and Reliance Digital

"In our view, RIL is among the biggest beneficiaries of the upcoming IMO standards on low sulfur fuels and likely up-move in diesel cracks and light heavy spreads. Per the chairman, the DTA gasifier project is now up and running and would lower costs as imported gas is replaced," JPMorgan observed.

Ambani concluded the speech by stating that the company is committed to strengthening its balance sheet.

"In our view, while this statement does not mean that an IPO on RIL's consumer business is likely anytime soon, investors would focus on the monetisation of investments, particularly in the consumer businesses and would be positive for RIL," JPMorgan advised investors.

Disclosure: Network18, the parent company of CNBCTV18.com, is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.

First Published:Jul 5, 2018 3:47 PM IST