Reliance JioFiber has a lot going for it as it's officially the first service provider in the country to offer Triple Play plans to the customers. JioFiber commercial launch happened last month and the company even announced new plans starting at Rs 699, providing minimum speeds of 100 Mbps. It's already a piece of confirmed news that JioFiber broadband plans will come bundled with landline connection and a 4K-ready Set-Top Box as well. But there's an interesting thing to note here is the company will not provide any Cable TV subscription to the JioFiber users. So to watch content on the Jio 4K Set-Top Box, customers will have to choose Cable TV connection from a Local Cable Operator whose charges will have to paid separately as well. Right now, it's confirmed that Hathway, Den Networks and GPTL Hathway offering Cable TV services to the JioFiber users.
Reliance Jio Set-Top Box: The Things You Might Not Know
It is worth noting that Reliance Jio is currently charging a security deposit of Rs 2,500 from every new customer of JioFiber. Out of this Rs 2,500, the Rs 1,000 is going to be non-refundable installation charges, whereas the Rs 1,500 will be the refundable amount. As part of this connection, every JioFiber subscriber will also be provided with a Jio Set-Top Box.
Now previously it was believed that Reliance Jio would also offer a TV connection since it was providing the Set-Top Box. But, during the commercial launch, it was revealed that the consumers would have to get an LCO connection separately to pair up with the Jio Set-Top Box to actually access Satellite TV channels. This essentially means that without getting a separate LCO connection, the Jio Set-Top Box won’t be of much use to the subscribers.
Why Reliance JioFiber Subscribers Will Have to Get an LCO Connection?
The reason why this is the case is that Reliance Jio could not materialise its plans to bring IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) to its subscribers. Instead, the Mukesh Ambani led telecom operator went ahead and bought a majority stake in Hathway and DEN Networks to leverage their last-mile connectivity. Another reason was that the company was facing massive resistance from these companies regarding the bringing of IPTV as it would have put them out of business. So, Reliance Jio is now going to empower the LCOs, by getting them connections through the JioFiber subscribers who would get the Set-Top Box as part of the JioFiber connection.
So, in case you are going ahead with the decision of getting a JioFiber connection in the hopes that you will be getting a free TV connection as well, sadly that won’t be the case. But, in case 100 Mbps speed, free content, and those are things that you would like to enjoy, then the Reliance JioFiber connection can make sense.
Also, we have got to know that Reliance Jio is inviting all the LCOs to join its network and provide television channels to the JioFiber users through its Set-Top Box. At the moment, it's unknown how many LCOs are even part of the entire JioFiber programme.
JioFiber Users to Get Jio TV Plus Service Bundled
At the time of announcing the JioFiber broadband plans, the company emphasised a lot on the content partnerships it's going to bring in the coming months. The dedicated web page of JioFiber confirms that all the JioFiber customers will be able to access a new service called 'Jio TV Plus,' which may bring all the subscriptions from OTT apps together. Right now, we don't have any additional regarding the Jio TV Plus service, but we're expecting the company to announce full details in the coming weeks.
JioFiber New Users are Receiving 2.4GHz Router
Before the commercial launch, JioFiber connection was available in two forms- a Rs 4,500 security deposit one and a Rs 2,500 model. The only difference between the two subscriptions is the router. With the Rs 2,500 subscription model, the company is shipping a 2.4GHz router and the Rs 4,500 model arrived with a dual-band (2.4GHz and 5 GHz) router. Several users are now reporting that JioFiber new customers are receiving a 2.4GHz router which will limit the speeds to just 50 Mbps through the router.
