At the 42nd annual general meeting (AGM) of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on August 12, chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani unveiled Jio GigaFiber, the much-talked-about fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) service.

Planned to reach 20 million residences and 15 million business establishments across the initial 1,600 towns, it set to offer television services, gaming, mixed reality and fixed-line voice calling access.

Priced between Rs 700 and Rs 10,000 per month, the speed of Reliance Jio GigaFiber starts from a minimum of 100Mbps to a maximum of 1Gbps, depending on the plan you select. Besides, Jio GigaFiber offers a 4K set-top box service, along with a 4K or HD LED TV or a PC for free to home broadband customers, who opt for Jio Forever Plan.

A quick comparison of current availed services with Jio Fiber:

Set-Top Box

Usually, television viewers are offered an array of services for an enhanced viewing experience, which includes features such as quality streaming, recording, Bluetooth remote control, LIVE TV, wireless connection, smart functions, video-on-demand and play/pause option.

On the other hand, Home Broadband by Jio offers services such as First-Day-First-Show, 4K gameplay, multi-party video conferencing, voice-enabled virtual assistant, smart home solutions and security, and access to the world of mixed reality with MR headset and smartphone connectivity for a wireless controller.

Speed

The lightning-fast speed of Jio GigaFiber up to 1Gbps will supersede the present speed provided by different operators. However, the current plans offered by different operators are:

Tata Sky is offering 5/10/30/50/100 Mbps speeds priced at Rs 999/1,150/1,500/1,800/2,500 respectively. Its 60GB and 125GB plan are availed at Rs 999 and Rs 1,250.

Airtel is providing 40/100/300/100 Mbps speeds with data usage of 100/300/600/unlimited GB for Rs 799/1,099/1,599/1,999 per month.

ACT Fibernet is offering speeds of 15/50/100/150/1024 Mbps (among others) with limits of 100/240/400/1,200/2,500 GB for Rs 685/959/1,159/2,999/4,999 per month respectively.

Spectra is offering monthly broadband speeds of 250/500/1,024 Mbps with limits of 750/500 GB (with carrying forward) for Rs 799/833/885 respectively.

Channels Provided

Viewers are free to subscribe and pay for the channels they watch. However, only a few of the cable operators like DEN and Hathway Cable & Datacom Ltd provide access to local channels. Though, Jio GigaFiber has not mentioned about the inclusion of local channels yet but ensures access to all top over-the-top (OTT) platforms for its customers.

Calling Features

Unlimited voice calling to US and Canada at Rs 500 per month is one of the highlighted features of Jio Postpaid Plus. On the other hand, the existing monthly plans to make international calls offered by other operators are:

Airtel: 200 minutes of ISD (International Telephone Code) for Rs 1,599.

Vodafone: All the calls to US/Canada at Rs 1.5/minute for Rs 63.

Similar Services

Airtel Internet TV offers TV box that runs on Android TV OS and features escalated user experience. At Rs 3,499, subscribers can access all TV channels as well as online content from OTT platforms. However, it doesn't support gaming or MR content like Jio’s set-top box.

All these services will be available from September 5, 2019, confirmed by Mukesh Ambani. From mid-2020, the premium Jio Giga Fiber customers will also get to watch new movies on the day of its release, he further added.

Disclosure: RIL, the promoter of Reliance Jio, also controls Network18, the parent company of CNBCTV18.com.

First Published:Aug 22, 2019 3:11 PM IST