In-home and business connectivity in India is changing. With Nokia and TATA launching India’s first WiFi6-ready broadband network and Jio harnessing Plume’s cloud platform to bring best-in-class experiences to consumers in the region, the connectivity infrastructure is shifting.
Latest analysis shows India’s total telecom service revenue for 2022 as $40 billion – with a CAGR expected to increase at more than 3% to 2027.
This projection is mainly supported by mobile data and fixed broadband segments.
India’s National Broadband Mission aims to offer minimum speeds of up to 50Mbps to all 250,000-gram panchayats and 625,000 villages in the country by 2024-2025.
This is said to be achievable using fibre-optic, satellite and mobile technologies as well as 4G network expansions – with the market Driver being 5G network development by MNOs.
Jio harnessing Plume’s cloud platform
Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio), India’s largest telecom network, has partnered with consumer experience pioneer Plume to provide what are pitched as ‘market-leading’ smart home and small business services to its subscribers across India.
This partnership is said to deliver state-of-the-art solutions, through Plume’s highly scalable cloud platform, to approximately 200 million premises in India.
Jio specialises in meeting the digital needs of customers based in India, providing fixed-line and wireless services delivered through the cloud – with all the infrastructure hosted in the country.
For this purpose, Jio has built the recognised as world-class JioFiber and JioAirFiber networks, designed to deliver reliable and high-speed Internet and entertainment services to every home in the country.
With this new partnership, Jio will deploy HomePass and WorkPass consumer services enabled by Plume’s AI-powered and cloud-based platform, including whole-home adaptive WiFi, connected device and application performance optimisation, cyberthreat protection for connected devices, advanced parental controls, WiFi motion sensing and more.
Access to Plume’s Haystack Support and Operations Suite will enable Jio’s customer support and operations teams to identify, analyse and act faster on performance-related issues, find and isolate the location of network faults and monitor the overall customer experience.
“As we continue to expand our portfolio of connected home services, it is critical for Jio to provide customers the most advanced and secure in-home digital services, delivering the best end-to-end customer experience,” said Mathew Oommen, President, Reliance Jio. “With scalable and leading-edge platforms from partners like Plume, Jio will continue to strengthen and enhance our connected home service offers and experience.”
Adrian Fitzgerald, Chief Revenue Officer, Plume, said: “The partnership with Jio marks a significant global expansion of Plume’s services with a major telecoms force in Asia. Our ability to offer a tailored and highly scalable cloud-based solution to meet the needs of the Indian market will enable Jio to rapidly expand its services offering.
“We are thrilled to help Jio deliver unique and highly personalised in-home digital experiences to its customers across India and support the company in the next chapter of its growth journey.”
Nokia and TATA to launch India’s first WiFi6-ready broadband network
India is ready for its first WiFi6-ready broadband network – with Nokia and TATA Play Fiber agreed on how to make it happen.
The agreement means Nokia will supply TATA Play Fiber with a range of fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and Wi-Fi gear to support its broadband network expansion across India.
Specifically, Nokia will provide its state-of-the-art Optical Line Terminal (OLT), Optical Network Terminal (ONT) with Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi mesh Beacons.
With Wi-Fi 6 Tata Play Fiber can offer differentiated services and deliver what’s described as a ‘rich, indoor user experience’ for its customers.
The new deployment is pitched as providing an intelligent mesh Wi-Fi 6 solution that opens ‘every corner of the home’ to high-speed Internet.
The solution supports low-latency applications such as gaming and can deliver gigabit speeds to multiple devices on the Wi-Fi network.
Network security is also enhanced with support for the WPA3 standard.
A key feature of the Nokia solution is its Mesh technology which is said to ensure ‘seamless coverage’ for large customer premises and areas with barriers like concrete walls.
Nokia’s WiFi 6 mesh technology is sold as ideally suited to residential homes with large and/or multi-floor spaces, as well as for SOHO enterprises, which represent a large addressable market in India.
Another differentiating feature of the Nokia solution is its use of its AI/ML software to identify traffic patterns, faults and potential outages in the GPON network so as to optimise the end-user user experience.
Anand N Sahai, CEO, Tata Play Fiber, said: “Our partnership with Nokia allows us to bring Wifi6-ready network to our customers – which is a first in the category.
“The deployment of this next generation best-in-class optical networking solution will boost up speed and coverage for multiple smart gadgets in all tech-dependent homes and enterprises.”
Vinish Bawa, Head of Enterprise, Webscale and Emerging Business, India, Nokia, said: “Nokia has been the world leader in optical line terminal (OLT) technologies and we are proud to be a close partner for Tata Play Fiber in India. This deal is an extension of the work we have already done together and will also notch up a first for India by upgrading the network to be WiFi 6 ready.”
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