Reliance Jio accounts for 85% of Fixed Wireless additions

As per a report from CLSA, 85 per cent of 2 million home additions in the third quarter of 2024-25 were Reliance Jio customers.

Also, nearly 70 per cent of Reliance Jio's 5G FWA/Jio AirFiber new homes connections are coming from beyond the top thousand towns/cities, the CLSA report said.

Fixed wireless access devices deliver fibre-like speed over the air without any wires. Users just have to plug it in, turn it on, and that's it and they will have a personal Wi-Fi hotspot at their homes.

"This mix of 5G FWA subscriber additions reveals that wider service availability has unlocked pent-up demand from beyond the top cities and towns across India," CLSA said in a telecom sector outlook report.

RJio's 2 million home subscriber additions led by 5G FWA/ Jio AirFiber have also led the sector leader's total connected homes to 17 million now - 90 per cent ahead of Bharti Airtel, asset management firm CLSA said.

Reliance Jio also claims that in 5G FWA/Jio AirFiber it has a significant first mover advantage and has already reached a total of 4.5 million homes.

"As per RJio it is headed to be the largest 5G FWA service provider globally (TMobile has 6 million) and this is a greenfield opportunity in India of connecting 100 million homes," CLSA said.

Jio had announced that it added 2 million new homes during the quarter ending December 2024. This is three times that of Airtel's quarterly home addition.

Bharti Airtel too has expanded 5G FWA service coverage to 2,000 cities across India. In the homes business, Bharti has also been stepping up rollout of fibre to home (FTTH) home passes (addition of 1.9 per cent per quarter) alongside 5G FWA availability.

"Bharti's CEO believes the home market can double to 80-90m over the medium term," CLSA said.

Motilal Oswal also in a recent note said, "Within a short span, RJio has ramped up its FWA offering, Jio AirFiber, to 4.5m homes and is on course to become the largest FWA provider globally in the next few quarters."

According to Counterpoint Research, India is on course to become the world's leading 5G FWA market by 2027 ahead of United States.

CLSA in its note had also pointed out that, "The best is ahead for RJio's and Bharti's homes business opportunity where growth is now accelerating driven by fast-paced adoption of 5G FWA alongside even changing content consumption preference of households." (ANI)