After launching its high-speed low-cost data services on smartphones, Reliance Jio Infocomm has started sending individual invites to consumers living in flats and apartment complexes in Chennai, to assess interest for its fiber-to-home services Jio Fibre.
“We are pleased to invite you to become one of the first housing societies in India to get JioFibre, an ultra-fast broadband services,” Reliance Jio Infocomm said in its invitation letter, which was posted on social media by one of the recipients. Through the invite, Reliance Jio has sought permission from individual residents of group housing societies such as flats and apartments to get its fibre-to-home network, as well as install wireless towers to improve connectivity in the premises.
As for the internet speeds offered, Reliance Jio Infocomm has said that a download of 500 Mbs or about 100 photos, would take less than a minute on its network compared to an hour on incumbents network.
The rollout of invites is an initial phase to assess interests for its high-speed broadband services at home, said a person with direct knowledge of the development. After few residents in the same complex show interest, then Reliance Jio plans to go to the local authorities to seek permission for installing fibre optic and related networks, this person said.
This would mean that the commercial offering would still take some time. Reliance Jio did not immediately respond to an email seeking comments and details on the JioFibre rollout in Chennai.
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani had on September 1 told the company’s shareholders that Reliance Jio is rolling out fibre-to-home wireline network in select cities and had plans to expand the network further to more cities “This initiative will push the power of data even further, and will offer data speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second. Again, this is on par with the most advanced wireline offerings anywhere in the world,” Ambani said.