Reliance Jio had announced that as of the latest reported quarter 4.5 million homes were connected with its 5G fixed wireless based JioAirFiber offering. JioAirFiber accounted for 85% of the home additions and nearly 70% of these subscribers are coming from beyond the top thousand towns/cities.
According to CLSA Research in a recent note, “wider service availability has unlocked pent-up demand from beyond the top cities and towns across India. RJio home subs at 17m are already 90% ahead of Bharti Airtel’s 9.2m and the duo control ~60% market share.”
Jio is the only operator in India offering the fixed wireless access (FWA) solution on a pan India basis. This has been enabled by its leading Standalone 5G footprint across the country. In comparison, Airtel in its recent investor call had said that its FWA offering on non-standalone 5G network is live in 2000 cities. Jio had announced that it added 2 million new homes during the quarter ending December 2024. This is three times that of Airtel’s quarterly home addition.
Motilal Oswal also in a recent note said, “Within a short span, RJio has ramped up its FWA offering, Jio AirFiber, to 4.5m homes and is on course to become the largest FWA provider globally in the next few quarters.”
According to Counterpoint Research, India is on course to become the world’s leading 5G FWA market by 2027 ahead of United States. CLSA in its note had also pointed out that “best is ahead for home business opportunity where growth is now accelerating driven by fast-paced adoption of 5G FWA alongside changing content consumption preference of households.” CLSA estimates that home connectivity with bundled content could be a US$11-15 billion annual revenue opportunity.”
