Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio finally revealed the details of its JioFiber service earlier this month. Many subscribers to Jio’s wireless 4G plans were expecting Jio Fiber to disrupt the fixed-line broadband industry. However, the company’s offerings seem to only be slightly better than the existing players.
For example, the amount of data it offers for the base Rs 699 plan is only 100GB per month. However, there is a lot of excitement among the customers owing to the free 4K TV on offer with the Jio Fiber’s Titanium annual plan. Jio is also offering Gold, Diamond and Platinum plans with free HD TVs. But, are they worth it?
JioFiber users will get the option of paying for 3, 6 and 12-month plans. Jio Fiber base plan is called ‘Bronze’ and it offers a free 6W Bluetooth speaker. On the other hand, for a free 43-inch 4K TV worth Rs 44,990, customers will have to opt for JioForever Annual Titanium Plan which is priced at Rs 1,01,988. The plan would offer 60,000GB data at a speed of 1 Gbps. The Titanium plan also includes Jio Home Gateway, a 4K set-top-box and an annual subscription of leading OTT apps.
But should you go for it?
The 1Gbps overkill
The 1Gbps speed sounds pretty good on paper but do you really need it in your house? 1Gbps speed matters only for a power user or in the enterprise scenario. For a casual home user, 100 Mbps is enough to stream Netflix at full HD resolution on multiple devices simultaneously. YouTube doesn’t buffer and everything runs smoothly. If you want to play 4K content on TV then Jio’s Gold plan that offers 250 Mbps would suffice. For a 2-year subscription of the Gold plan at Rs 31,176, users can also get a 24-inch HD TV with a retail cost of Rs 12,990 for free. Other than that, users will also get the usual Jio Home Gateway worth Rs 5,000 + 4K Set Top Box worth Rs 6,400.
Lack of clarity
Reliance Jio hasn’t disclosed the TV brand and the specifications of the bundled 4K TV it will be offering to its users for Rs 44,990. It would be wiser to wait for a few months to get a clear picture and then go ahead with the investment. At the launch, it was also said that the Titanium plans will offer support for Virtual Reality (VR) experience and premium content access like First-Day-First-Show movies, special sports content, etc. But the company has not provided any details about the VR content and also on how the First-Day-First-Show concept will work. At the moment, there is an eight-week window between a theatrical release and the release in any other format.
Is there a ‘4K’ logic?
The 4K TV is only available on an annual plan priced at Rs 1,01,988. But what will happen if a user cancels or switches to another plan after 6 or 8 months? What will happen if the user changes the plan after completing 12 months or changes over to another service provider, will the user be made to surrender the 4K TV?
