INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Jio has completed 5G network coverage planning for top 1,000 cities in the countryNew Delhi: Jio has completed 5G network coverage planning
for top 1,000 cities in the country and is augmenting its fibre capacity as well as running pilot across sites, a senior company official
said during a presentation.The company has created teams to focus on dedicated solutions for 5G deployment in India, Reliance Jio Infocomm
President Kiran Thomas said on Friday evening."5G coverage planning has been completed for 1,000 top cities across the country
Jio has been doing trials on advanced use cases across healthcare and industrial automation on its 5G network," Jio said in a
statement.Thomas during the presentation said that the company is running a 5G pilot in multiple cities and network planning for the roll
out of 5G using 3D maps and ray tracing technology is going on."We are using the most modern approaches towards network planning, especially
3D maps and ray tracing technology because 5G is pretty unique technology, which requires very advanced network planning techniques, and we
are undertaking that for all of India, so that as and when the approvals are received for us to roll out this network, we will be well
geared-up to prioritise our rollout, where we can make the maximum contribution," Mr Thomas said.Auction for 5G spectrum is expected to be
held in the first quarter of the next financial year
42.1 crore.The subscriber base, however, declined on a quarter-on-quarter basis."We closed the quarter at 421 million subscribers
That was a reduction of 8.4 million, but the gross addition continued to be very strong 34.6 million
And the reduction was really on account of SIM consolidation and some of the less active customers, now with tariff increases, etc, looking
at consolidating uses in a single SIM," Reliance Jio head of strategy Anshuman Thakur said.On a reported number basis, Jio's ARPU remained
almost flat but the company's average revenue per user (ARPU) increased by 8.4 per cent to Rs 151.6 on a year-on-year after making
adjustments interconnection usage charges (IUC) which it had to pay to other operators.The IUC charges have become nil from January 1,
2021.Jio Platforms posted an 8.8 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 3,795 crore for the third quarter ended December 2021.It had posted a
net profit of Rs 3,486 crore in the same period a year ago.
