Indus Valley Times

By Our Correspondent

Bhubaneswar, Sept. 5: Eight years ago, Reliance Jio commercially launched its service in India on September 5, 2016.  Today marks 8 years to Jio’s and India’s digital transformation journey, wherein India has ascended from 155th to the number 1 position globally in mobile data consumption. Jio has not only become the world’s largest mobile data network but also handles 8% of global data traffic. Currently, 60% of India’s total data traffic is carried on Jio’s 4G and 5G networks, with the average data usage per user per month increasing more than 73 times since 2016. Today, the average Jio user consumes around 30 GB of data monthly. To put this in perspective, Jio’s total data consumption in FY24 was 148.5 billion GBs, equivalent to the mobile data consumption of the entire Europe and Middle East combined.

Despite this massive growth, the cost of data in India remains the lowest in the world. The current cost per GB is 30 times lower than in 2016 when Jio first entered the market.

The impact of this unbelievable data revolution has been tremendous in strengthening the backbone of the digital economy, leading to the creation and growth of new business segments, earning opportunities for common citizens over and above the most visible impact fueling exponential growth in the fields of fintech, edtech, e-commerce and tech start-ups.

Fast-expanding digital penetration happening on a grand scale across the country has led to true digital inclusion and empowerment as millions of people gained access to high-speed data and rich content resources in regional and pan-Indian languages. This opened the gates to thousands of new earning streams for millions of common citizens, performing artists, entertainers, and communication professionals as they turned into immensely popular content creators with a fan base running into millions. From a truck driver in Jharkhand to a tribal boy from the hinterland in Odisha, common citizens from various walks of life turned big influencers with millions of views, fan following and earning lakhs of rupees every month through their vlogs talking about their daily life journeys. The data revolution ushered by Jio catapulted the digital entertainment industry and digital channels to a new level of explosive growth, with millions of people taking to new full-time professions in content creation, vlogs, podcasts, digital channels, and social influencers in diverse fields.

As Jio completed eight marvelous years becoming the market leader in both wireless and wireline segments, it now has over 490 million subscribers including the largest 5G subscriber base of 130 million globally, outside of China. Jio also ensured world’s largest and fastest stand-alone 5G network with over 85% of the 5G BTS operating in India belonging to Jio network.

Expanding the reach and penetration of high-speed wired and fixed wireless broadband services across the nooks and corners of the country, Jio has become the fastest operator to cross 1 million connections on fixed wireless with strong demand for the popular JioAirFiber. As one of the largest digital home service providers globally, serving nearly 30 million homes across digital broadband and digital TV services, Jio aims to connect 100 million homes and 20 million SMBs.