tech2 News Staff

Reliance is planning a Diwali launch for JioFiber, its commercial broadband service for consumers. The company is currently testing JioFiber in Mumbai and Pune to check the robustness of the system. The company has not officially announced the launch date for the services but we can expect welcome offer for the users similar to the one offered for Reliance Jio users.

According to a report by The Economic Times, the launch of JioFiber will kick-start a price war between existing Internet Service Providers. The report details that Reliance will introduce a base plan of 100 GB data usage for Rs 500, which amounts to about double the data for half the price, compared to the competition.

This is a significant development for consumers despite the home broadband amounting to a ‘small market’ of about 20 million wireline broadband users, with more than half opting for BSNL connections. The market is extremely small when compared to the Wireless broadband market, which has about 200 million users.

The company is planning to expand its free trial offer beyond the current cities starting June 2017 with a commercial launch following the expansion. This comes almost nine months after Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) chairman, Mukesh Ambani announced plans to bring 1 Gbps broadband to a 100 cities in India.

Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.