Jio to become a dominant force in Indian 5G market

• Jio’s partnership with the University of Oulu to fast-track its R&D in 6G technology positions the company as a key player in the telecom industry, not just in India, but on the global stage.

Reliance Jio’s significant investment and advanced frequency utilisation strategy in 5G positions it as a leader in the Indian market when compared to its competitors, an industry expert said.

“Jio has reportedly earmarked $25 billion for 5G services rollout, making it the largest 5G investment in India. The telecom giant has purchased 5G spectrum in all the main frequency bands, including 700MHz, 800MHz, 1800MHz, 3300MHz, and the premium mmWave 26GHz bands,” Charan Padala, Principal Analyst in the Thematic Intelligence  team at GlobalData, said.

Of these, the 700MHz band is particularly noteworthy as it allows Jio to penetrate rural areas in India and offer low-cost 5G services to the masses.

Reducing interference issues

Moreover, Padala said that Jio has taken several measures to reduce potential interference issues with its 5G services, including the use of Beamforming, Beam tracking, Dynamic Spectrum Management (DSM) technology, and the deployment of multiple antennas for each base station.

With these measures in place, he said that Jio is poised to become a dominant force in the Indian 5G market. With its advanced infrastructure and technology, Jio has the capability to offer incredibly fast speeds up to 600 megabits per second and ultra-low latency.

In India, 5G services are being offered by only two telecom operators- Reliance Jio and Airtel.

Jio has launched its 5G services in 50 additional cities, bringing its total to 184 cities across India, as of January this year.

Reliance Jio 5G services are available in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Varanasi, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Bengaluru, Nathdwara (a town in Rajasthan), and all the 33 district headquarters of Gujarat. Gujarat is the first state in India where 5G services from Jio are available across the state.

Airtel is offering its 5G services in 12 major cities across country. These include Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur, Varanasi, Panipat, Gurugram, Guwahati, and Patna.

Both Jio and Airtel are planning to launch 5G Pan India by 2024. Mukesh Ambani headed Jio is also targeting to reach out to significant Indian cities by December 2023.

Upper hand

Other telecom operators, including Vodafone Idea or BSNL are yet to launch their 5G services.

While BSNL is planning to launch 4G services in the start of 2023, followed by 5G in mid or by the end of the next year, Vodafone is facing financial issues and is working on the same to launch its 5G network in India.

Even though Jio has an upper hand, Padala said that it remains to be seen whether these efforts will pay off in terms of consumer adoption.

“Despite this uncertainty, Jio’s ambitious plans for 5G and 6G technologies have put India on the global map for advanced communications and well-positioned to capitalise on the growing demand for these connected innovative services in India.”

Moreover, he said that Jio has partnered with the University of Oulu to fast-track its research and development in 6G technology.

The Indian Department of Telecommunications (DoT) estimates that 6G could be launched as early as 2029-2030 in India, and Jio’s partnership with the University of Oulu positions the company as a key player in the telecommunications industry, not just in India, but on the global stage.