How Jio Fiber will kill DTH and broadband service providers

Yesterday, Reliance Industries' chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani announced the availability of Jio Fiber broadband services, earlier known as Jio GigaFiber, during the company's 42nd Annual General Meeting (AGM), starting 5 September.

The three-in-one service

Jio planned its fiber services quite smartly to capture major market share. As most of the consumers have two or three different connections in their home or office for Broadband, TV and landline. The Jio fiber service is surrounding the fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) broadband services that connects landline, broadband and STB (set-top-box) via single fibre-optic cable.

How it could kill DTH and Broadband services?

Mukesh Ambani revealed that Jio GigaFiber has received 15 million registrations till the time and aimed to reach 20 million residences and 15 million business establishments across 1,600 towns. Presently, on a pilot basis, Jio GigaFiber is in 5 lakh homes since 2016.

As we all are aware of Jio 4G announcement, a free membership with various benefits, now the same expectations are with Jio Fiber.

Cost: The key

As per, yesterday announcement, Jio Fiber will be priced between Rs. 700 and Rs. 10,000 per month. This will be including free voice calls from home to any Indian operator (mobile or fixed).

The plan also features an unlimited international calling pack from Jio landline at Rs 500 per month, to US and Canada.

It also has a top-end plan that cost Rs 10,000 a month providing access to broadband, Jio HomeTV and Jio's IoT.

Broadband Speed

Jio Fiber plans will offer speed from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps, while Airtel has up to 300 Mbps of speed starting at Rs 799 per month. However, there is no confirmation about the data allocation for Jio Fiber, Airtel and other service providers has a cap of up to 300 GB or higher depending on the monthly subscription.

TV - Channels and OTT

JioFiber kept consumers’ demand in minds, for movie buffs, it will offer a subscription to its Jio apps as well as to third-party OTT platforms. The STB would offer 600 TV channels in HD or 4K. Subscribers can also get extra services including games and Mixed Reality could be on a chargeable basis.

Ambani also revealed that Jio Fiber plans will come bundled with subscriptions to most leading premium OTT applications, possibly referring to Hotstar Premium and Netflix.

First-day-first-show: Movie buffs will be happy to have Jio Fiber as they can watch movies on the same day they are released. The service is called Jio First-Day-First-Show, which will be launched in the middle of 2020.

Connected home/office: IoT

Jio has developed an innovative service Narrowband Internet-of-Things (NBIoT) on its pan-India 4G. This IoT platform will be commercially available starting January 1, 2020. With this platform, Jio is aiming to connect at least 1 billion connected devices. Using this service along with smart sensors, residential, industrial or public, become IoT enabled.

Offers

Jio is known for amazing offers, and so for the Jio Fiber. Jio announced Jio Forever plans, with this long-term plan, subscribers will get an HD or 4K LED TV and a 4K set-top box absolutely free.

Conclusion

Majority of consumers have given up with their landline, but if you combine broadband and DTH subscription cost, then it would be higher than 700. Jio has smartly kept the pricing keeping that in mind. Cheaper plans with various other offers help them to get a huge foothold in the market. Also, Jio Fiber is feature-rich that includes 600 channels, (HD and 4K), IoT, VR, Gaming, etc. no one is even close to Jio.

Jio is going to disrupt the market and surely, players like Airtel and Tata who are in both services, preparing to come up with plans to retain their customers.