In a move that could disrupt the fixed-line internet market in the country, Reliance Jio has begun the registration process for its new optical fibre-based broadband services. Though the company has not yet disclosed the pricing, market sources expect it to be cheaper by 30-40 per cent of existing tariffs.

Currently, no major player has a national network of optical fibre. State-owned BSNL has the highest number of fixed-line telephone users, but these are mostly on copper cables, which cannot carry as much data as an optical-fibre cable. Among the private players, Airtel has optical fibre in about 90 cities. Airtel has already reworked its tariff plans in anticipation of aggressive pricing by RJio. Smaller players such as ACT Broadband have also lowered their tariffs recently.

“The fixed-line broadband market in India has so far been quite a disappointment with only few players focussing on select markets. RJio could change the game with a national footprint, just like it did with its 4G services for mobile users,” said an industry expert.

The roll-out by RJio will be one of the world’s largest greenfield broadband networks based on optical fibre. The company is likely to bundle offerings across broadband, internet-based set-top box for television and voice telephony. This could also disrupt the business model of traditional cable TV players.

RJio, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), will offer high-speed broadband under the brand JioGigaFiber, targeting 50 million homes to start with.

“Fixed-line broadband offers hundreds of megabits, even gigabits per second of data speeds. Jio is determined to move India to among the top five in fixed-line broadband,” RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani had said at the company’s 41st AGM recently. “In countries with better developed communication infrastructure, more than 80 per cent of data consumption happens indoors through fixed-line connectivity. Optical fibre-based fixed-line broadband is the future.”

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