AdvtAdvtBy ,ETTelecomJoin the community of 2M+ industry professionals Subscribe to our newsletter to get latest insights & analysis. Download ETTelecom App Get Realtime updatesSave your favourite articles Scan to download AppMaui (Hawaii): Qualcomm Inc, the world’s largest maker of smartphone chips, believes 5G-based fixed wireless access ( FWA ) services using millimetre waves (read: 26 GHz spectrum) can be a genuine game changer for India’s top two telcos, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel to speed up 5G monetisation as it can be deployed rapidly, and since both telcos have massive chunks of these low-cost airwaves at a pan-India level.A top Qualcomm executive said both Jio and Airtel have recently tested their 5G-based FWA services on 26 GHz spectrum and the test results were encouraging, in that, the quality of connectivity and data speeds were decent even during the intense Mumbai monsoons. It uses fixed broadband devices such as CPEs, offering better coverage and speeds.Both Jio and Airtel have taken initial steps to monetise 5G by recently launching AirFiber or 5G-based FWA services in some key markets. Both have splurged top dollars on 5G spectrum buys and ongoing countrywide network rollouts.Analysts expect Jio to take the lead in hastening monetisation of its 5G-based FWA services by bundling PayTV. This, especially if FWA catches on and drives fast broadband adoption initially among the 85 million-odd Pay-TV homes that still don't have internet access in India.During the last Reliance Industries (RIL) annual general meeting, chairman Mukesh Ambani had said Jio AirFiber had the potential to connect up to 150K homes a day, which is much higher than the 1.5K homes a day that Jio currently does with Jio Fiber, amid last-mile connectivity challenges.

Source: Economic Times October 25, 2023 13:21 UTC