Reliance Jio is aiming to significantly expand its home broadband footprint, with a target of reaching 100 million households. While current fiber connections, according to the company's Q4FY25 presentation, stand at 18 million and 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) connections are under 6 million (5.6 million), the company is banking on a combination of technologies—particularly its AirFiber solution—to accelerate growth.
Also Read: JioHome by Reliance Jio: Plans, Benefits, and Offers for May 2025
Free Trials and Customer Acquisition
To recollect, Reliance Jio has previously set itself a target of connecting 100 million homes and thereby offering free trials of JioHome services, which now house AirFiber and Fiber services for customers. However, there is an internal timeline. While the target is not public, the company has an internal plan in place.
By offering free trials and services of FWA and broadband with conditions like getting a new SIM, recharging or making bill payments, and sending messages via WhatsApp from a registered number, we believe Jio can also showcase an increase in its mobile user base, activity, and project some numbers. Per earlier reports and screenshots circulating on social media, there were also cumulative benefits of a 50-day free offer to users who make advance payments/recharges for long terms such as 6 or 12 months.
Screenshot 1: With February 28 Endline
Screenshot 2: March 31 Endline
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Jio's Journey Started with Free Trials
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That said, free trials are nothing new to Jio, as they launched their very services with free offerings for years. However, in response to an analyst's question during a recent earnings call about whether the company has a timeframe for reaching 100 million homes, Jio's Head of Strategy, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, Anshuman Thakur, said, "I am not going to give you forward looking, but yes it is. It is a plan. So it is a plan, so it will have a timeframe internally."
Also Read: Jio Launches 50-Days Free Trial Offer for New and Existing Users
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For another question from the same analyst, "You had an excellent acceleration in 5G FWA, but that is still under 6 million while fiber homes are 18, and you are reiterating your 100 million home target. Is that banking on 5G FWA acceleration?" Thakur emphasised that the 100 million target will be achieved through a hybrid approach, leveraging both wired fiber and wireless technologies.
It is "going to be a combination of what we are doing on AirFiber, which is where we have seen a lot of good success in deployment now. The numbers have been ramping up. And the fact that we have been able to do that very successfully using both our 5G spectrum as well as the UBR radio gives us the confidence that the last mile challenges that we have faced in the past while connecting customers, and we have faced quite a bit of challenges in the last mile, which was kind of expected," Thakur continued.
Also Read: Jio 5G FWA Stack Sees Global Interest After India Scale-Up; Jio Private 5G Powering Industry 5.0
Wireless Service Saving Cost and Time
Jio is of the view that the demand will drive its user base, and its wireless service AirFiber will not just reduce costs but also address the factor of time.
"It is not only a function of cost, but a function of time really that we will be able to overcome by doing this wirelessly. And which is why we feel reasonably confident. Demand is there. Almost half of our FWA connections are coming from tier three, tier four cities and rural areas, so demand is fairly wide and prevalent. So if we are able to provide the service, we feel reasonably confident demand will be there and more than 100 million homes definitely need that service today, many more than that," Thakur added.
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