MUMBAI: At the 42nd annual general meeting (AGM) of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani announced the much-awaited launch date for its fibre-to-the-home service. Jio Fiber will be launched on a commercial basis on 5 September on the third anniversary of the telecom giant’s launch.

“Jio Fiber Services to be launched on commercial basis on 5 September 2019 - on the third anniversary of Jio’s launch. (We have) plan to reach 20 million residences and 15 million business establishments in 1,600 towns,” the business tycoon announced.

In the last AGM of RIL, Ambani announced the high-speed fixed-line broadband services for retail customers. At the time of announced, Ambani revealed that it already invested more than $250 million in the industry. While the upcoming service has been on trial run since last year, he added that trial homes are, on average, consuming more than 100 GBs every month indicating the ever-increasing usage of internet in India.

For a smooth rollout of the fibre service, Jio also made significant investments in two large multi system operators (MSOs) of India – Hathway and Den Networks. “Over the past months, we have upgraded our MSOs’ infrastructure to world-class standards. Now LCO partners can offer the largest bouquet of high-definition channels to customers with better features, reliability and customer experience than even DTH,” Ambani commented.

Keeping the mixed economy structure of Indian internet users, Jio Fiber’s plans have been fixed from 100 mbps speed to all the way up to 1 Gbps. The pricing will range between Rs 700 per month to Rs 10,000 per month.

To increase user engagement, Jio Fiber is set to offer various other entertainment opportunities to its consumers. Ambani also stated that Jio Fiber consumers will have access to premium over-the-top services. Moreover, Jio Fiber will launch a premium service where customers can watch movies at home on the release day itself, which will be launched in the middle of 2020.