Jio vs Airtel: The race to monetise 5G with fixed wireless access

In 2022, India’s telecom titans Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel spent big on acquiring fifth-generation, or 5G, spectrum. Combined, the duo spent close to $20 billion. They sank another few billion into procuring telecom equipment from vendors such as Ericsson and Nokia to roll out 5G-capable networks.

For all the money it entailed, though, setting up their 5G plays was the easy part. Now comes the hard part—recouping their massive outlays.

The two companies are now racing to recover their 5G investments by offering 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) to millions of home subscribers looking for home broadband internet connections. The service is touted by telecom vendors worldwide as the killer application for telcos globally to monetise their expensive networks. For context, 5G FWA is an alternative to cable broadband internet, wherein a combination of a device embedded with a 5G SIM and a WiFi router act as a powerful hotspot that beams high-speed internet to the surrounding areas.

While Airtel was first to launch its 5G FWA offering, Xstream AirFiber, last August in Delhi and Mumbai, Jio’s service—JioAirFiber—was unleashed the following month in 8 cities, including all major Indian metros. Now, both telcos are ramping up the availability of 5G FWA on a war footing.