Reliance AGM 2022: Mukesh Ambani Says Jio To Invest Rs 2 Lakh Crore For 5G Rollout

Reliance Industries Ltd.'s Chairman Mukesh Ambani said Jio 5G will be the "world's largest and most advanced" such network, and the company will invest Rs 2 lakh crore for a pan-India rollout.

Jio will deploy the latest version of 5G called 'Standalone 5G', Ambani said in his address to the shareholders at the 45th annual general meeting of RIL. Jio’s rollout will be the “fastest in the world”.

“Unlike other operators, Jio’s 5G network will be standalone with zero dependency on 4G network. The threefold advantage of standalone 5G architecture, largest and best mix of spectrum and carrier aggregation technology means that Jio 5G will be able to offer an unparalleled combination of coverage, capacity, quality and affordability," he said.

"With standalone 5G, Jio can deliver new and powerful services like low latency, massive machine-to-machine communication, 5G voice, edge computing and network slicing, and metaverse."

"By Diwali, we will launch Jio 5G across multiple key cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata," Ambani said. "We will increase Jio footprint by December 2023 pan-India, to every town, taluka and tehsil."

Ambani said Jio is the only telecom operator that has the 700 MHz spectrum. "We're able to combine all frequencies into a single powerful data highway through career aggregation."

Ambani said Jio, over the last year, has consolidated its position as India's top digital services provider. "Jio has 42.1 crore mobile broadband subscribers, that consume an average 20 GB data per month, which is nearly double their consumption from last year."

"We are also working with smartphone OEMs that they will support India's 5G. We have their commitment." He said Jio 5G will also offer private network solutions.

Jio, he said, saw acceleration in adoption of Jio Fiber. "Two of every three new customers chose Jio. That made us the No. 1 FTTX provider in India."

Also, Ambani said Jio has partnered with some of the world’s leading technology players for 5G collaboration.

It has partnered with Meta on metaverse and immersive technologies; Google on producing "ultra-affordable 5G phones and Google Cloud initiatives"; and Microsoft for building the Azure Ecosystem in India. Intel is also a partner for cloud scale data centres and other solutions.

Jio is in partnership with Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, and Cisco. Ambani said Jio is also now adding chipmaker Qualcomm as its partner—already an investor in Jio Platforms.

Ambani said the indigenous 5G network will be called Jio True 5G.

Akash Ambani, chairman of Reliance Jio, and Kiran Thomas, chief executive officer at Jio Platforms Ltd., announced the launch of JioAirFiber, a WiFi 5G solution.

"Jio has developed a JioAirFiber Home Gateway, a wireless, simple, single-device solution to have a Wi-Fi hotspot at home, connected to ultra-high-speed internet using True 5G... With it, India can rank among the top 10 nations, even for fixed broadband," Akash Ambani said.

Also, they said using JioAirFiber, people can do away with all expenses related to buying computer hardware and periodically upgrading it, and opt to use a virtual PC hosted in the cloud—called Jio Cloud PC. "This can be used to create private 5G network for businesses."