Reliance Jio Fiber launch: Data plans, pricing, DTH set-top-box details to be revealed

Jio Fiber commercial launch will take place today where the telco will announce full data plans and more. Ahead of Jio Fiber’s launch, Airtel has announced specifications and offers for its new Xstream DTH service.

Reliance Jio Fiber to launch in India today. (REUTERS)

Reliance Jio Fiber broadband service is schedule to commercially launch today in India. The telecom operator will reveal full data plans of Jio Fiber and other details of its broadband and DTH services.

Reliance Jio had first unveiled its broadband service as GigaFiber at its Annual General Meeting in 2018. Since then the company had been running a beta trial of the service with select number of users. Reliance Jio charged ₹2,500 (refundable security deposit) for the installation of the broadband service.

Jio has been running beta tests under Jio Fiber Preview Offer through which users received 100 Mbps data speeds with 100GB of data for 90 days. Once this much data was exhausted users could get an additional top-up of 40GB data. The telco plans to reach 20 million residences and 15 million business establishments in 1,600 towns with its Jio Fiber service. Jio also aims to power three levels of users starting with home, small businesses and large enterprises.

Jio Fiber: How to register

Interested users can register for Jio Fiber connection through Jio's official website. Here, users need to provide their address, full name, mobile number, and email ID. Jio will then send an OTP for verification of the service. Once the request is put through, a Reliance Jio sales representative will soon connect with you for the installation of the Jio Fiber connection.

Documents required for Jio Fiber installation include an original Aadhaar card or any original proof of identification and proof of address. Reliance Jio says the total time taken to install and activate the connection is roughly 2 hours from the time engineer visits your home.

Jio Fiber: Data plans

Reliance Jio has promised to offer data plans priced between ₹700 to ₹10,000. The base plan will come with 100Mbps data speeds. The most expensive Jio Fiber plan priced at ₹10,000 will offer data speeds of 1Gbps. At launch, Reliance Jio will also run a limited time 'Welcome Offer' for users who opt for Jio Fiber annual plans. Through this offer, customers will be eligible for a free HD or 4K LED TV and a 4K Jio set-top box.

Jio set top box

Jio is offering a digital set top box along with its Jio Fiber subscription. The set-top-box comes bundled with multimedia features. Jio set-top-box will allow users to access popular OTT platforms as well as live TV channels from local cable operators (LCOs). Jio has already acquired controlling stakes in Hathway, DEN and GTPL. These LCOs will be able to broadcast HD content to Jio GigaFiber customers.

The set-top-box will also be capable of video calling and even gaming. Jio set top box is compatible with all gaming controllers and will support console titles like FIFA 2019. The company said Jio set-top-box is "at par with the best in the world" in terms of graphic performance and will deliver "zero latency."

Jio set-top-box also supports MR and VR content. At its AGM this year, Jio demonstrated MR content in different categories like shopping, education and movies. Through shopping in MR, users will get to experience the clothes they wish to purchase. Jio is also slated to launch its Holoboard MR headset soon. Jio Holoboard MR headset is developed by Tessarect, a startup Jio invested in recently.

Jio Fiber offers

Like other Jio services, Jio Fiber also comes bundled with freebies. Jio Fiber offers come with access to free voice calls to any operator (fixed or mobile) in the country. Jio will also launch its 'First Day First Show' offer next year which will let Jio Fiber users watch movies the same day as theatre release.Jio also launched an unlimited international calling pack at ' ₹500 per month' for the US and Canada.

Telco rival Airtel also launched its Xstream set-top-box along with offers for new and existing Airtel users. Here's what Airtel is offering with its Xstream DTH service.

Airtel Xstream

Airtel Xstream set-top-box is priced at ₹3,999. It runs on Android Pie 9.0 and offers unlimited access to Android TV apps. Airtel Xstream set-top-box packs 2GB of RAM and 8GB of built-in storage. It also has a microSD card slot for storage expansion up to 128GB and external HDD/USB drive support as well. Airtel Xstream comes with a bundled remote which supports Google Voice Assistant.

The set-top-box supports live TV channels as well as OTT apps such as Xstream App, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. The Xstream set-top-box also lets users play games on their TV screen via Airtel Games which is a smart remote gamepad app. Airtel Xstream set-top-box also comes with Amazon's Alexa support.