Latest news with #AnshumanThakur
Time of India
21-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Jio's self-built 5G stack draws global attention
A senior executive of Reliance Industries said the self-developed end-to-end 5G stack of Reliance Jio , the conglomerate's telecom arm, is gaining recognition globally and is a potential monetisable opportunity. 'It (Jio) is one of the leading deep tech companies in India with enormous amounts of innovation and technology development that we have done over the years,' Anshuman Thakur, senior vice president, Reliance Industries, said at the company's earnings call on Friday. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Select a Course Category Technology Cybersecurity others Finance Data Science Project Management Data Science Operations Management Product Management Artificial Intelligence MBA Public Policy Management Digital Marketing Others Data Analytics Healthcare Design Thinking healthcare PGDM CXO Leadership MCA Degree Skills you'll gain: Duration: 12 Weeks MIT xPRO CERT-MIT XPRO Building AI Prod India Starts on undefined Get Details Reliance Jio is an unlisted subsidiary of Jio Platforms, which holds Reliance Industries' telecom and digital businesses. 'Today this technology, this tech stack, the entire value chain, the whole software, hardware stack is only available with us and has been deployed at scale,' Thakur said. 'All the global operators are looking at us to see how we have done this so successfully. And then a whole bunch of initiatives on AI.' The latest addition to the telecom tech stack is the multi-point UBR technology for home connections, which global telcos have tried to replicate but failed, he said. UBR enables multiple home connections through a single 5G cell site targeting 50%-60% homes within a micro-cluster using a single transmission tower, bringing down deployment costs. 'We are the first to deploy UBR for UBR-based connectivity at scale. This is a technology that operators worldwide have tried to work on and have not had much success,' he said. UBR is the innovation child of Mimosa Networks , the US-based communications equipment maker which Jio Platforms acquired for $60 million through its wholly owned subsidiary Radisys Corporation in August 2023. Majority of Jio's UBR equipment are manufactured by US-based Sanmina Corporation, which has a joint venture with Reliance Industries in India. During the June quarter, Jio crossed the milestone of 20 million home connections, 7.4 million of which were AirFiber FWA (fixed wireless access) connections scaled with UBR tech. The telco now has 82% market share in 5G FWA connections in India. Analysts are bullish on Jio's strong customer additions and cost benefits from technology ownership after Q1 and have raised Jio's enterprise valuation. 'Jio's 5G tech stack, core, software, hardware and BSS/OSS are all in-house and proprietary,' brokerage firm IIFL Securities said in a report. 'This enables quicker revenue ramp-up due to lower dependence of vendors, lower costs due to licence fee savings, customisation/scale-up of configuration based on requirements, and potential monetisation by selling to global telcos.' IIFL has raised Jio's valuation to $134.2 billion (Rs11.2 lakh crore) from $133.9 billion it had said earlier. Equity research firm Jefferies also raised its revenue estimates by 1-4% to factor in the changes to subscriber assumptions and lower access/network costs. 'We believe RJio remains well-placed to deliver 18%/22% CAGR in revenues/EBITDA over FY25-28, given rising tariffs in mobile and scaleup of home broadband business . We raise our EV (enterprise valuation) for Jio to US $146 billion (Rs 12.19 lakh crore) on the EBITDA upgrade and roll-over to Jun-27,' Jefferies said in a report. Jio also holds the highest number of patents on 6G. Jio Cloud , launched last year, offering 100GB free cloud storage, now has 35 million consumers, Thakur said during the call. On Monday, rival telecom operator Bharti Airtel 's shares ended 0.4% higher on the BSE at Rs 1,908.75, giving it a market cap of more than Rs 10.88 lakh crore.
Mint
21-07-2025
- Business
- Mint
Unlicensed band radio: What it means and why it could be a low-cost fix for home broadband woes
Ever wondered how you manage to stream Netflix, attend Zoom calls, scroll through Instagram, and play online games—all at the same time? It's your home Wi-Fi working quietly in the background to keep everything running smoothly. Until now, internet has reached your home mainly through fibre-optic cables or the recently introduced fixed wireless access (FWA), which uses the 5G network. Now, Reliance Jio has introduced a new technology–unlicensed band radio (UBR)–to its backend systems to make home broadband 'faster and more efficient". Mint takes a look at Jio's new technology for home broadband, and whether it will benefit users, and impact other telecom companies. What is UBR tech? At the earnings call with analysts on 18 June, Reliance Jio said it is the first to deploy point-to-multipoint UBR technology for home broadband. The technology works like a radio station, sending internet wirelessly from a central antenna placed on a tower to multiple homes or buildings at the same time. This is called unlicensed as it uses free radio waves or open spectrum, such as the 5 GHz band that is allowed for licence-free use. Jio claims that this proprietary technology of the company has helped it accelerate the pace of monthly home connections to 1 million during the April-June quarter. The company said it has reached 20 million connected premises via home broadband using a combination of fibre, its AirFiber offerings and UBR. Why is Jio taking a different tack for home broadband? Jio is choosing a different route for home broadband because using only 5G and fibre has limits and is costly, it says. 5G networks are already busy with mobile users, and adding home broadband puts extra pressure on them, the company said. There's also limited 5G spectrum (radio space), which makes it hard to scale or customize services for home users. On the other hand, the fibre is prone to physical damage. 'Cost-wise, also, it (UBR) is more economical. Last-mile fibre is more expensive. So, in all those regards, it is going to be much more sustainable," said Anshuman Thakur, senior vice president at Jio Platforms, during the earnings call. According to Thakur, operators worldwide tried using the technology but did not succeed owing to less demand and therefore no scale. However, India is a fairly large market with over 300 million homes that will require broadband services, he said, adding that Jio's target of 100 million home connections seems much more doable. Since the reliance is on unlicensed spectrum, one of the biggest advantages for Jio would be to save on the spectrum usage charges (SUC). What does it mean for consumers? For users, UBR promises good fibre-like speeds of over 1 GB per second, without disruption in service due to cable cuts, according to Jio. It said unlike 5G network, the technology supports very high-end multicast applications. The telecom operator does not see any material difference on the consumer premise equipment (CPE) or boxes through which the internet enters homes or buildings. The device price will be similar to FWA, Jio's Thakur said, adding that the network equipment would be economical for the company. Analysts, however, said there could be some cost savings for the consumers on the CPE. 'This is a user-friendly technology. Currently, the cost of CPE used in FWA is high, but Wi-Fi routers are generally cheaper, and UBR uses those routers," said Satya N. Gupta, former principal advisor at the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). According to Gupta, home broadband services over UBR would improve service quality and reduce costs. What does this mean for competition? Besides Jio, only Bharti Airtel is using both 5G FWA and fibre to connect homes with broadband. Airtel has not yet shared plans to use UBR technology for providing home broadband services. Analysts, however, said it depends on the operators' internal strategies in terms of what is driving maximum cost savings for them, and their spectrum deployment strategies, while ensuring service quality. 'This technology is largely seen as a way to save on costs for the companies," Gupta said, adding that even Airtel may implement the same going forward. 'Jio has scaled FWA well with 6.5 million subscribers and its ability to use Unlicensed spectrum (UBR) should support further FWA subscriber adds with limited impact on its mobile network," said brokerage house Jefferies in a note dated 18 July. Analysts at Jefferies expect Jio's mobile subscribers to reach 517 million and home broadband subscribers to reach 38 million by March 2027. What are the challenges? According to experts, there could be some technical challenges, such as interference and congestion issues, once it scales. 'We cannot control interference in the unlicensed band. This spectrum is going to be common for all, and if you are giving broadband connectivity…and someone or some service is interfering with the channel at that time where the transmission is taking place, the speeds can go down," said Parag Kar, an independent telecom analyst in a video analysis on YouTube. According to Kar, even as Jio will be able to double the capacity by using the Wi-Fi band but if the network gets loaded, the service quality will be affected. Therefore, risks such as maintaining quality of services over the long term, as it will be difficult to guarantee quality service owing to interference challenges, experts said.
Time of India
02-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Reliance Jio turns to UBR to lower 5G FWA deployment costs, launches private network in Jamnagar
NEW DELHI: Reliance Jio has, in recent months, also started using unlicensed band radio (UBR) equipment for provisioning fifth-generation ( 5G )-driven fixed wireless access (FWA) service to incrementally lower the cost for connecting homes via ultrafast wireless broadband, a top executive of the India's largest telecom operator said. 'In this particular product, which has gone live in the market over the last few months, we have been deploying a fair bit of fixed wireless on our 5G spectrum and also UBR. We have developed and deployed, so it is in commercial use,' said Anshuman Thakur, head of strategy, Reliance Jio Infocomm, at Reliance Industries' most recent post-earnings call. Thakur said the network configuration is allowing Jio to use a single radiating gear to serve multiple users, which in turn, is lowering the cost of deployment. 'So the cost that we incur to connect every new home is incrementally much less than what you would hear about companies elsewhere, which are doing such a thing,' he said. An unlicensed band radio equipment operates in frequency ranges that do not require a license from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for usage. In India, the 2.5GHz, 5GHz, and some lower bands have been delicensed for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and other applications. 'If the fiber is available, we connect the customer with fiber, but otherwise with our 5G spectrum, in some cases, UBR, we know exactly what kind of throughput different technologies will provide to customers,' Thakur said. The Mumbai-headquartered telecom carrier had an 85% market share in the FWA services segment, with a 5.6 million customer base, at the end of FY25. It added 1.2 million fixed broadband subscribers in the fiscal quarter that ended March 2025, with half of the new additions coming from tier-3 and tier-4 towns. 'UBR is now commercially live, even in situations where we do not have a direct line of sight, which has been a big challenge just about every operator globally,' he said. As per the top executive, nearly all of Jio's equipment is being manufactured by the telco. 'We feel confident of connecting 100 million homes, a target we have set for ourselves,' he said. Thakur, however, did not state a timeline for achieving 100 million connected homes, but clarified that it will be done with a combination of JioFiber (FTTH service) and JioAirFiber (FWA service). 'The numbers have been ramping up (for FWA). 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, we will be able to overcome by doing this wirelessly,' he said. FWA market potential With Jio and rival Bharti Airtel targeting major 5G FWA ramp-ups alongside FTTH, bundled and pay TV services, these combined could be a $11-15 billion annual revenue opportunity, brokerage CLSA said in a recent research note. 'Led by Reliance Jio's leadership and Bharti Airtel's execution, this new opportunity will be in addition to India mobile revenue growing from the current $30 billion to $39 billion by FY27CL,' it had said. Jio makes strides in private 5G Thakur said Jio has commercially deployed instances of private 5G, enabled by dedicated network slices, at some industrial premises, including in Jamnagar. 'Our whole network core, 4G and 5G, is completely deployed by us. It is our proprietary core. And we can create private instance of that for our enterprise customers. We have already deployed in some of the industrial situations, industrial premises, including in Jamnagar,' the executive said. The private 5G has enabled use cases around robotic automation, video surveillance, and enhanced security, supported by ultra-reliable and low-latency bandwidth. 'We are able to do network slicing to ensure consistent service delivery irrespective of the amount of load that the network may have at any point in time, and able to provide end-to-end managed services,' Thakur said. Jio, although did not disclose the names of its private 5G customers, or additional information.
