Reliance Industries Ltd’s Jio will begin rolling out 5G services for its subscribers in the next two months, Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced on Monday. Speaking during the annual general meeting of the RIL, Ambani said Jio 5G will “connect over 100 million homes” and Reliance Jio has earmarked Rs 2 lakh crore investment for 5G network.
Ambani said that Jio 5G services will initially launch in four cities—Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata—by Diwali, which is in October. “By December 2023, which is less than 18 months from today, we will deliver Jio 5G to every town, every taluka, and every tehsil of our country,” he added.
“Today, I want to announce the next leap forward that Jio is creating in digital connectivity, especially in fixed broadband. And that is JIO 5G services,” he said. With Jio 5G, Reliance will connect everyone, everyplace and everything with the highest quality and most affordable data, he added.
“To build our pan-India true 5G network, we have committed a total investment of Rs 2 lakh crore. Jio has prepared the fastest ever and most ambitious 5G rollout plan for a country of our size. Within the next two months. That is by Diwali, we will launch Jio 5G across multiple key cities including metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata,” he said.
He announced that Reliance Jio will deploy the latest version known as ‘stand-alone 5G’ which is not dependent on the existing 4G network. Reliance Jio has partnered with Qualcomm to develop 5G solutions for India, Ambani said, adding that his company is also partnering with Google to develop ultra-affordable 5G smartphones and Google Cloud.