Before Reliance Jio announced the plans and pricing of its JioFiber service in the first week of September, the telecom operator was already providing its services to many homes in the country in some major cities. This was known as the preview offer from Reliance Jio, under which the subscribers were enjoying the JioFiber service for free of cost. Now according to JioFiber officials in Kerala, the subscribers of the company’s trial broadband service will be moved to the newly announced plans by the end of this month. After this, Reliance Jio will move ahead with the expansion of activities beyond the five locations of Kerala, where the subscribers were enjoying the trial services of JioFiber.
Around 5,000 Customers in Kerala to be Shifted to Commercial Plans
In the five locations of Kerala, where Reliance Jio was shipping its trial broadband services, the telco has 5,000 customers. These five locations include Trivandrum, Kochi, Calicut, Thrissur and Kannur. As reported by Ultra News, the customers of Reliance JioFiber trial plan are located in high-rises, and they will be transitioned to commercial plans in the “next ten days or so”. The official also noted that even in these five cities, the JioFiber connections have not been given out in every locality, but instead, the telco has stuck to major locations like Marine Drive, High Court Junction and Thripunithura in Kochi.
The Reliance Jio official remarked that although fibre is spread across the state, the last mile connectivity is something that is yet to fall into place. Currently, the company is slowly using various methods like overhead lines and underground cables to extend last-mile connectivity deeply into these cities.
Expansion to Other Locations Also in the Talks
While talking about the expansion beyond these cities, the official did not give away any solid timeline as to when the expansion beyond these cities would happen, but he did remark that in the second phase of the rollout of the service, Reliance Jio would target second-tier cities like Kottayam.
Reliance Jio has rolled out a lot of options for its subscribers to choose from when it comes to the JioFiber service. Under its banner, the plans start from Rs 699, which is the Bronze plan from Reliance Jio offering 100 Mbps speed and 100GB data. There will also be additional data thrown in the bundle for the subscribers. There are more plans like the Silver Plan, Gold Plan and more with better speeds and more data and even more additional benefits. However, the thing to note is that while Reliance JioFiber specialises in speeds beyond 100 Mbps and avails limited data if the subscribers decide to compromise on the speed a little, then they can get plans which offer unlimited data. For example, in Kerala, some of the major broadband service providers like Asianet, Railwire and Kerala Vision offer plans with unlimited data and speeds up to 50 Mbps.
