Views of Mukesh Ambani: “Jio promises AI to everyone, everywhere”

Reliance Jio consistently increased its share in the telecom market while expanding its 5G network at a record pace in 2023. Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), spoke about the company’s 5G roll-out, connectivity and digital offerings, and future plans at various industry events during the year. Edited excerpts from his addresses…

 

Journey so far

Jio was launched seven years ago with an ambitious mission to transform India into a premier digital society, where technology would bring positive changes in every sphere of our lives and every sector of the nation’s economy. It has been our great privilege to contribute to this revolution, and we have invested our heart and soul into building a digital public infrastructure, which the entire world has begun to admire. Jio has indeed been the main catalyst of new India’s spectacular digital transformation.

Market leadership in 5G

Jio 5G was already present in over 96 per cent of the census towns of the country within just nine months of commercial launch. This makes it the fastest-ever 5G roll-out of this scale anywhere in the world. Every city, town and village in the country is now equipped with high speed digital connectivity. With over 50 million 5G customers, we are already leading in 5G adoption in India. We are the only company with the capacity to smoothly transition our entire 4G customer base to 5G, with minimal additional capital expenditure.

Furthermore, Jio is the only company that offers its 5G customers the complete ecosystem of connectivity, devices, support services and value-added services. Through Reliance Retail, we have the most expansive sales and support network for 5G devices and services across India. We have plugged all leading 5G smartphone original equipment manufacturers into this network to ensure nationwide availability and adoption of the widest range of 5G devices.

5G infrastructure roll-out

Today, nearly 85 per cent of the total 5G cells operational in India are on Jio’s network. At our current pace, we are adding one 5G cell to our network every 10 seconds. Our 5G roll-out is powered by Jio’s own 100 per cent in-house developed 5G stack, which perfectly aligns with our prime minister’s Atmanirbhar Bharat vision. It features advanced technologies such as standalone 5G architecture, carrier aggregation and network slicing, with advanced artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning capabilities that optimise our vast network for unparalleled quality, reliability and user experience. Our 5G stack is fully cloud native, software defined, digitally managed and supports advanced features such as quantum security. It is designed to seamlessly integrate with 4G and 5G equipment from other global vendors.

Jio’s portfolio of 5G radios ranges from small cells to large tower-based radios, addressing the entire spectrum of outdoor and indoor usage scenarios. Our focus on continuous innovation has positioned us to be among the first, globally, to develop 6G capabilities.

Jio’s vision is to make the highest level of connectivity available to the masses at affordable prices at all times.

Recently, we used our indigenous 5G stack to become the first operator in the world to launch commercial services on millimetre wave spectrum using standalone 5G. This high-capacity, low-latency layer will significantly enhance private 5G, home broadband and enterprise use cases. We have also built our own low-power small cells to go deeper into specific pockets of high consumption, such as tourist spots and temples, in a highly energy-efficient manner.

We have become one of the largest filers of global patents from India for digital technologies, affirming our transformation from a telecom operator to a technology company. Therefore, in the coming years, I can see Jio leveraging our Made in India tech stack to drive value creation and revenue growth, both at home and abroad.

5G use cases

Jio 5G holds the potential to transform all sectors of our economy, especially those with maximum grassroots impact. In agriculture, real-time monitoring and data analysis can enhance farm productivity and crop yields. In education, we can deliver immersive e-learning experiences to the remotest parts of our country, democratising education for every student. In healthcare, we can use telemedicine to ensure that quality healthcare reaches every corner of India. For the micro, small and medium enterprises sector, we can enable our small businesses with digital tools, empowering them to innovate, expand and drive economic growth and job creation.

Jio Bharat 4G

Even today, 250 million feature phone users in India remain stuck in the 2G era, unable to access digital services. To eliminate this digital divide once and for all, we recently launched Jio Bharat, a revolutionary, ultra-affordable 4G phone. Priced at Rs 999, which is less than the price of a 2G feature phone, JioBharat has smartphone-like features such as live TV, streaming video and music, digital photography, and even unified payments interface. Jio Bharat phones will enable digital inclusion for millions of Indians and catalyse India’s transformation to next-gen connectivity solutions.

JioFiber and JioAirFiber

JioFiber, our optical fibre-based home broadband service, has crossed 10 million subscribers despite Covid-19 disruptions. Each of its subscribers consumes over 280 GB of data per month on average, which is over 10 times higher than our per capita mobile data consumption. Today, Jio’s optical fibre infrastructure spans over 1.5 million km across India. Our extensive optical fibre presence puts us near over 200 million premises. Yet, providing physical last-mile connectivity is a painstaking process in most parts of our country. This leaves millions of potential customers without home broadband due to the complexities and delays involved in extending optical fibre to their premises.

This is where JioAirFiber, our fixed wireless broadband offering, comes in. JioAirFiber uses our pan-Indian 5G network and advanced wireless technologies to bypass the need for last-mile fibre. Through optical fibre, we can currently connect around 15,000 premises daily. But with JioAirFiber, we can supercharge this expansion with up to 150,000 connections per day, which is a ten fold increase, expanding our addressable market over the next three years to over 200 million high-paying homes and premises. It also gives us another avenue for customer value and revenue growth in the untapped Indian home segment.

Digital offerings

Jio’s digital offerings have established it as a strong market leader in India’s digital services ecosystem. For instance, JioDive is a technology that helps users explore the virtual reality (VR) universe through a smartphone-based headset. JioDive runs on the JioImmerse application, which offers users exclusive VR experiences in gaming, learning, entertainment and wellness, all accessible through their smartphones.

We have become one of the largest filers of global patents from India for digital technologies, affirming our transformation from a telecom operator to a technology company.

Enterprise business

Our connectivity offerings for large enterprises and small businesses have doubled over the past year. Today, Jio provides connectivity services to over 80 per cent of large enterprises in India. But we are not stopping at connectivity; we are also aiming to support the full spectrum of digital needs for Indian businesses. Jio Platforms, our digital services arm, is already providing end-to-end professional and managed services for all businesses of the RIL group, covering diverse verticals such as telecom, retail, e-commerce, manufacturing, media and financial services.

Future plans

Jio is committed to continually innovating and launching new technologies and products, and expanding the market for digital services. The scale of Jio’s operations and the advantages of deep penetration help it grow stronger with the launch of each new offering. Jio’s vision is to make the highest level of connectivity available to the masses at affordable prices at all times.

As I gaze ahead, I see four exciting frontiers for Jio’s growth. These are the consumer segment, powered by Jio 5G and JioBharat; the home segment, turbo-charged by JioAirFiber; the business segment, with its large untapped potential; and Jio Platforms’ opportunity for global expansion. Collectively, these frontiers provide Jio an opportunity for multi-

fold revenue and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation growth in the coming years. But there is also a fifth – and most exciting – frontier of growth for Jio. We are rapidly augmenting our talent pool and capabilities to swiftly assimilate the latest global innovations in AI, especially the recent advances in generative AI. Looking ahead, Jio Platforms wants to lead the effort in developing India-specific AI models and AI-powered solutions across domains, thereby delivering the benefits of AI to Indian citizens, businesses and the government alike.

As this sector expands, we stand committed to creating up to 2,000 MW of AI-ready computing capacity across both cloud and edge locations. We will do this while adopting sustainable practices and a greener future. Over the next five years, we plan to shift most of our energy footprint in connectivity and digital services to green energy, which is not just eco-friendly but also more cost-effective. Seven years ago, Jio promised broadband connectivity to everyone, everywhere. We have delivered. Today, Jio promises AI to everyone, everywhere. And we shall deliver.