Reliance Jio reaches 100 Indian cities with its 5G offering

With the latest launch, Jio’s 5G services are now available across 23 states in India

Indian telecom operator Reliance Jio introduced 5G services in six new cities across the country, taking the count to 100 cities within four months of launching the services in India.

Earlier this week, Reliance Jio Infocomm launched its 5G offering in Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Salem, Hosur and Vellore.

With the latest launch, Jio’s 5G services are now available across 23 states in India.

Some of the cities where the telco already offers 5G include Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi, Kolkata, Nathdwara, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Gurugram, Noida, Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Pune, Tirumala, Vijayawada, Vishakhapatnam, Guntur, Lucknow, Trivandrum, Mysuru, Nashik, Aurangabad, Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula, Zirakpur, Kharar, Derabassi, Bhopal, Indore, Bhubaneshwar, Cuttack, Jabalpur, Gwalior, Ludhiana, Siliguri, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur.

Since Jio is offering the 5G connectivity on an invitational basis, users living in 5G enabled cities with 5G compatible smartphones will get the invite.

Reliance Jio Infocomm had initially announced the launch of the beta trial of its 5G services in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Varanasi in October 2022.

Last year, Reliance Jio Infocomm announced 5G contracts with Nordic vendors Ericsson and Nokia. The deal with Ericsson marks the first partnership between Jio and Ericsson for radio access network deployment in the country.

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

Jio, which is offering 5G services via Standalone (SA) architecture, has announced plans to reach nationwide coverage with 5G by December 2023.

Meanwhile, rival operator Bharti Airtel said it had already launched 5G services in 30 cities across India.

“Airtel 5G Plus will be present across urban India by end of the year as we continue to ramp up our deployment at a rapid pace,” an Airtel spokesperson said.

Bharti Airtel founder and chairman Sunil Mittal had previously said that most parts of the country will be covered by 5G by March 2023.

The Indian operator is currently using equipment from Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung to provide 5G services. Airtel had secured a total of 19,800 megahertz of spectrum in the 900 MHz, 1.8 GHz, 2.1 GHz, 3.3 GHz and 26 GHz bands in a recent auction carried out by the Indian government. Airtel is deploying 5G using a NonStandalone (NSA) network infrastructure.

Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel have deployed nearly 33,000 base stations for 5G services as of the end of the year, according to recent press reports.

According to the report, Reliance Jio Infocomm is deploying 5G base stations at a faster pace compared to Bharti Airtel. This is because Reliance Jio has to set up a Standalone 5G network, which requires a larger number of 5G radios in comparison to Bharti Airtel’s NonStandalone network.

The report also stated that capital Delhi concentrates nearly one third of all 5G base stations in India.