JioGigaFiber set to rock the internet world

Akash and Isha Ambani at the 41st AGM of Reliance Industries.

After the mobile telephone market, Reliance Industries is about to disrupt the cable television and fixed-line broadband market with ‘JioGigaFiber’, their fixed-line broadband service.

It will offer high-speed internet, ultra high definition entertainment on large screen TVs, multi-party video conferencing, voice-activated virtual assistance, virtual reality gaming and digital shopping as well as smart home solutions

It will be launched in 1,100 cities. Registration will begin from August 15.

Along with the launches ultra-high speed fibre-based broadband services Reliance Jio will offer a Set Top Box for TV, which is expected to compete with DTH operators. Experts in the industry says it would be a “serious competition” to TV distributors on both the DTH and cable side, which may lead to price cut in the both industries.

With ‘Jio GigaTV’ set-top box, subscribers can watch over 600 TV channels, thousands of movies and millions of songs and other content, at any time.

“You can now enjoy all your entertainment content at ultra- high definition. This is like having a theatre in your home,” said Akash Ambani, Director of Reliance Jio

Jio’s GigaTV is an internet connected set-top box which will allow users access to JioTV,  JioCinema and also other features like JioSmartLiving.

Credit Suisse, famous invest bank and financial adviser, wrote in their report that the launch of JioTV would be a pose a major threat for TV distributors on both the DTH and cable side and is likely to put further pressures on already falling ARPUs (average revenue per user) once the service is launched.

Meanwhile, shares of broadcasting and cable TV operators declined by 15.4 per cent today after Reliance declared their fibre broadband service in 1,100 cities.

Hathway Cable & Datacom plunged 15.40 per cent, Den Networks 10.73 per cent and Siti Networks 2.76 per cent on BSE.