Reliance Jio plans to build 1.5 million Wi-Fi hotspots in India

Reliance Jio, the largest 4G network in India, is planning to build an extensive Wi-Fi network in the country and aims to install 1.5 million Wi-Fi hotspots all over India in the next 18 months. The project is part of the company’s plan to become the dominant player in the telecom industry by covering the whole country with its data.

Currently, Reliance Jio offers high-speed data through both its 4G LTE telecom network and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network and is now planning to strengthen its market presence through the development of a robust Wi-Fi network. So far, they have set up 90,000 Wi-Fi hotspots, and they are successfully expanding their network, by adding 2,000 deployments every week.

Reliance Jio’s Wi-Fi network, which operates on the existing optic fibre but is separated from the company’s’ telecom network, is expected to do load balancing by improving the distribution of network traffic across different servers. Indeed, load balancing provides users with more capacity, being able to ensure a better Wi-Fi experience.

Furthermore, the implementation of different Wi-Fi hotspots across India would allow covering dense landscapes effectively, allowing more people to have access to free Wi-Fi. In particular, the adoption of an extensive Wi-Fi network would positively affect semi-urban and rural areas, considering that the country includes more than 250,000-gram panchayats and 600,000 villages. At present, Reliance Jio is ready to equip metros in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and the state of Telangana with Wi-Fi technology.

The Wi-Fi hotspots of the project operate on the latest 802.11 ac standard, which provides Wi-Fi networks with multi-gigabit speed and high performance, and use smart antennas that provide better coverage. The implementation of the Wi-Fi network in India is expected to speed up in the upcoming months and to further expand.