With Reliance Jio[1] 4G services having cemented its place in the Indian telecom market, all eyes are on the company’s upcoming JioFiber home broadband[2] services. The Fiber-to-the-Home[3] (FTTH) service was mentioned by Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani[4] when the Jio operations were officially launched in September last year[5], and was again mentioned in an earnings call in April[6]. The company has been teasing the service, but has not revealed many details of JioFiber broadband yet. So it comes as a surprise when the Reliance Jio customer care team officially revealed the names of the cities in which JioFiber trials are being run.
Replying[7] to a Twitter user from @JioCare handle, the Reliance Jio customer care team said the JioFiber Preview Offer is being launched in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, Ahmedabad, Jamnagar, Surat, and Vodadara. It added the company is in the process of rolling out the home broadband service to other cities in the country, but did not specify any names. A Twitter user in September had said[8] the preview offer is available in Pune as well.
Several users who have had early access to the JioFiber Preview Offer have tweeted about the service in the past. One such user in Mumbai had reported in January[9] speeds between 70Mbps and 100Mbps on the 1Gbps connection. In the Pune instance, however, speeds of up to 743.28Mbps were recorded[10] - implying a 1Gbps connection. While the service is said to be free[11] for the first 90 days, users will have to pay a one-time, refundable sum of Rs. 4,000-4,500 for the JioFiber router.
The wired JioFiber connections...