Jio Expands 5G Services in New Cities; Will Airtel Be Able To Match Jio's Plans?

| Updated: Tuesday, October 25, 2022, 16:20 [IST]

Reliance Jio has launched its 5G-enabled Wi-Fi service at the temple town of Nathdwara in Rajasthan. Also, the service will be expanded to other public places with high footfalls, including educational institutions, religious places, and railway stations. In addition, Jio has also started rolling out its 5G services in Chennai.

Earlier, Jio announced its 5G services for users in four cities, including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Varanasi. Before the official launch of 5G services, Jio 5G exhibited superior internet speed as compared to its rival, Airtel. Given that Jio is expanding its 5G services to new cities, let's take a look at how it competes against Airtel in the 5G race.

Jio Expands 5G Services to More Cities

Now, users of Jio in Chennai will be able to get the 5G invite from the telco. The company has also extended the Jio Welcome Offer to subscribers in the city. As per this offer, Jio users with the invite can get access to the 5G service during the beta trial. During the trial, subscribers will be able to access unlimited 5G data at up to 1Gbps speed.

Notably, Reliance Jio has plans to cover the entire country with 5G services by December 2023 and it has simultaneously started out 5G-enabled Wi-Fi services. It aims to make 5G services available to every citizen, every home, and every business across the country and access JioTrue5G.

Will Airtel Also Expand its 5G Services?

Given that Jio and Airtel are arch rivals and the former is expanding its 5G network to new cities, will Airtel also reach more cities? Already, the company started offering its 5G services in eight cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Varanasi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Bengaluru, and Nagpur. It also plans to cover several key cities in the country in the coming months.

By the end of this year, Airtel would target cities where Jio has launched its 5G networks. Similarly, Jio is targeting the cities where Airtel 5G is available. By March 2023, Airtel plans to cover the majority of urban India and by March 2024, it plans to cover the whole country. Given that Airtel is deploying 5G NSA networks, users do not have to upgrade their 4G SIM cards to experience the next-gen mobile services.

As only Jio and Airtel are offering 5G services in India right now, we can see that both telecom operators are racing towards revolutionizing the telecom services with their 5G networks.