India Mobile Congress 2023: Reliance Jio launches JioSpaceFiber; Akash Ambani bats for 5G revolution

Akash Ambani-led Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, on the first day of the 7th edition of the India Mobile Congress 2023 in New Delhi today, showcased a satellite-based giga fiber service, which is touted to be India’s first, to provide high-speed broadband services to inaccessible geographies in India. 

Jio says its new satellite broadband service, called JioSpaceFiber, will be available across the "length and breadth of the country at highly affordable prices". 

Currently, Jio claims to deliver high-speed broadband fixed line and wireless services to over 450 million Indian consumers. "To accelerate digital inclusivity for every household in India, Jio has added JioSpaceFiber to its premier lineup of broadband services, JioFiber and JioAirFiber," says a company statement. 

Speaking at the India Mobile Congress 2023 event, Akash Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Jio, says India today ranks amongst the top three 5G-enabled nations, with over 125 million 5G users. "Jio’s 5G rollout is powered by a 100% in-house 5G stack, designed, developed and manufactured entirely by Indian talent," says Akash.

He adds that the transformative power of 5G will provide new employment and entrepreneurial opportunities to millions of Indians. "To put it in our Prime Minister’s words, it will help both job seekers and job creators!"

He says the satellite network will also support additional capacity for mobile backhaul, further enhancing the availability and scale of Jio True5G in the remotest parts of the country.

For JioSpaceFiber, Jio has partnered with SES for medium earth orbit (MEO) satellite technology, the only MEO constellation capable of delivering unique Gigabit, fiber-like services from space. 

Jio will have access to a combination of SES’s O3b and new O3b mPOWER satellites, providing scalable and affordable broadband with high reliability and service flexibility.

Jio says to carry out the project, four of the remotest locations in India have already been connected with JioSpaceFiber -- Gir Gujarat, Korba Chattisgarh, Nabrangpur Odissa and ONGC-Jorhat Assam.

“Jio has enabled millions of homes and businesses in India to experience broadband internet for the first time. With JioSpaceFiber, we expand our reach to cover the millions yet to be connected,” said Akash Ambani.

“Together with Jio, we are honoured to support the Government of India's Digital India initiative with a unique solution that aims at delivering multiple gigabits per second of throughput to any location in India,” said John-Paul Hemingway, chief strategy officer at SES. 

The India Mobile Congress event is co-hosted by the Department of Telecommunications and Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI). This year's theme for the event is "Global Digital Innovation". Over 1 lakh participants, including 5,00 senior executives, 350 guest speakers and 400 exhibitors are expected to participate in the event.