Jio aims to export high-speed fixed wireless access internet as managed service

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Reliance Jio aims to export its high-speed fixed wireless access (FWA) internet as a managed service rather than entering overseas markets directly as a telecom services provider, senior company officials said. Having already deployed nearly 1 million 5G sites across the country since October 2022, the Mukesh Ambani-owned telecom operator views FWA as the biggest use case for 5G not only in India but also in other global markets.

“India market is extremely large and we’re yet to tap into its full potential. FWA will be the biggest use case for 5G and we already have set a 100 million homes target for it. We’re thinking of FWA as a managed service which we can supply to other markets," said one of the officials cited earlier, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.

FWA is a technology that delivers high-speed internet without the need for copper or fibre connections using point-to-point connections on 4G or 5G networks. Jio, India's largest telecom company, has launched this service called JioAirFiber, which has 2.8 million connections of the total 6 million in India. Rival and second-largest carrier Bharti Airtel has also launched this service called AirFiber on its network which now covers 1,300 cities.

The country's third-largest telecom service provider Vodafone Idea is also evaluating offering FWA to its consumers, its top executives told Mint. Ericsson’s head of south east Asia and India market Andres Vicente told Mint recently that FWA had the potential of reaching 100 million connections by 2030 in India. However, Jio has set an even more aggressive target of adding 1 million FWA users every month.