Jio to start beta trial of 5G services in 4 cities from Oct 5

Telecom major Jio will start the beta trial of 5G services in four cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Varanasi from October 5 with a select set of customers, the company said on Tuesday.

The company will send invites to customers under 'Jio True 5G Welcome Offer' to try its 5G services and the subscribers will get Unlimited 5G data with up to 1 gigabit per second speed.

"Post the successful demonstration of its True-5G services at the India Mobile Congress 2022, Jio is announcing the Beta trial of its True-5G services on the auspicious occasion of Dussehra, for Jio users in four cities – Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Varanasi," Jio said in the statement.

Invited ‘Jio Welcome Offer' users will be automatically upgraded to the Jio True 5G service without needing to change their existing Jio SIM or 5G handset.

Customers will only need to continue paying for their existing 4G plan and will not require to pay any additional amount for 5G data during the trial.

Reliance Jio Infocomm chairman Akash M Ambani said that by embracing 5G, Jio will create nation-first platforms and solutions that will transform skill development, education, healthcare, agriculture, and many such sectors, with the promise of enabling a better life for every Indian.

"5G cannot remain an exclusive service available to the privileged few or those in our largest cities.

"It must be available to every citizen, every home, and every business across India.

"Only then can we dramatically increase productivity, earnings, and living standards across our entire economy, thereby creating a prosperous and inclusive society in our country," Ambani said.

The company will gradually launch the beta trial service for other cities and users will continue to avail of this beta trial until the network coverage of a city is substantially complete to provide the best coverage and user experience to every customer.

Jio had started 4G mobile services in 2015 through a network trial and before the commercial launch it had already onboarded 1.5 million subscribers.

The company's customer base increased to 16 million within a month of its commercial operations.

From a start-up in 2016, Jio now leads Indian mobile market with over 425 million customers.

Bharti Airtel has also launched 5G services in select areas of eight cities which include Delhi, Mumbai and Varanasi as well.

The company has also not announced any tariff plan yet for the high speed mobile services.