Jio sees growing interest for its locally-made 5G stack: Report

Jio said its 5G stack includes 5G radio, core, OSS/BSS, small and pico cells and other software solutions

Indian operator Reliance Jio Infocomm is seeing interest from global operator for its 5G stack, local newspaper The Economic Times reported, citing the company’s president Mathew Oommen, as saying.

The executive said that Jio’s 5G stack, which includes 5G radio, core, OSS/BSS, small and pico cells and other software solutions, will be made available to the global market as an integrated solution.

“There is not a large operator in the world who has not visited us to find out more [about the 5G stack]. Everyone is intrigued by the business service capability that we have. So they have been coming to us to understand more (…) We are deliberating to determine the next steps,” Oommen said.

He said that the telco is currently working on its go-to-market business model. “We don’t think we want to be just another box-selling company. What will be important for us to determine is to bring to the market something fundamentally different, not the box model. And that requires the integration part of it and offering it as an integrated solution. That is the part we will be working with ourselves to determine how to differentiate,” he said.

The executive also said that 5G monetization will be possible in India once telecom operators start selling the services and solutions to industry verticals. “I think the biggest value of 5G is to sell to industry verticals,” he said.

Reliance Jio Infocomm recently said it has covered the entire country with its 5G network ahead of the promised time frame of December 2023.

According to a statement released by broadband speed and quality measurement firm Ookla, Jio’s chairman Akash Ambani said the carrier already deployed 85% of the 5G network infrastructure in India.

Reliance Jio Infocomm has been rapidly expanding its 5G network using Standalone (SA) architecture since October 2022. The telco has already deployed its 5G service in 7,764 cities across 36 states in India, according to the carrier’s website.

Reliance Jio had previously secured a mix of wireless spectrum for 5G across the 700 MHz, 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands. Jio is the only Indian operator with the 700 MHz low-band spectrum.