When it comes to mobile subscribers, the numbers in India are only rivaled by China. There are around 1.1 billion people with mobile phones, with more than 220 million of those being smartphones. For operators looking to offer more services with higher revenue potential, they have to get more subscribers to migrate to smartphones, but the network infrastructure to support the services also has to be upgraded. India's fastest growing operator, Jio, has partnered with Nokia (News - Alert) so it can deliver on its promise to build broadband connectivity for all of India as part of the Pan-India 4G network so its customers can move to smartphones, and the company can provide next generation communications services.
Jio was just launched in September 2016, and in just five short months it has captured the second place position. The company has a network of more than 250,000 km of fiber optic cables in the country, which it is using to partner and deliver different type of services with broadcasters and telecoms. The support from Nokia's transport network is going to give Jio an additional 90,000 km of one of the biggest 100G deployments in the world.
As part of this infrastructure, Jio can provide high-capacity services to many of the regions in India in which it doesn't have a presence. The company can now increase capacity with faster speed to be able to deliver next generation communication services that are more reliable. With less than 20 percent broadband penetration in India, Nokia's network will offer different high-bandwidth services for consumers, businesses and other organizations.
“Nokia's next-generation DWDM portfolio provides the ability to scale easily as Jio continues to expand the network to reach the underserved areas of India with digital services in key areas such as communication, education, healthcare, payments and multi-media entertainment,” says Mr Jyotindra Thacker, President at Reliance Jio.
Jio has signed 100 million new users in just 170 days, according to Thacker. To effectively manage this incredible growth, the company has deployed Nokia's 1830 Photonic Service Switch. This includes the 100G Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) capabilities enhanced with Generalized Multi-Protocol Label Switching (GMPLS) intelligence to support capacity management and restoration.
This will give Jio reliable high-speed broadband connectivity to provide next generation communications services for both fixed and wireless users, and quickly deploy new services as network demand increases.
“The government's vision for digitization across the country, combined with Jio's goal of making broadband a basic service for all citizens, means broadband penetration will grow quickly in India. The Nokia solution not only provides the speed and capacity necessary for this growth, but it also ensures a more reliable service for the customers,” says Sam Bucci, head of Nokia's Optical Business.
Edited by
Alicia Young
