RELIANCE JIOTECHNOLOGY NEWS

JioFiber Ships Set-Top Box With Every Plan, But a Separate LCO Subscription is Required to Watch TV Channels

The Mukesh Ambani led telecom operator, Reliance Jio has finally commercially launched its fibre-based home broadband service which the Indian public has been waiting for more than a year. The Reliance JioFiber service has plans which start at Rs 699 per month, and these plans offer anywhere from 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps speeds. Although merely the broadband offering is not a very attractive proposition itself from Reliance Jio, what makes the JioFiber attractive for most interested customers are the bundled offerings which include a Jio Set-Top Box. On first glance, this might seem like a very luring offer for the subscribers, wherein Jio is offering a free STB to the customers, but there are a lot of nuances attached to it which the consumers should know before proceeding to get a Reliance JioFiber connection. So here is something that you should absolutely know about the JioFiber Set-Top Box.

Reliance Jio Set-Top Box: The Things You Might Not Know

It is worth noting that Reliance Jio is currently charging a security deposit of Rs 2,500 from every new customer of JioFiber. Out of this Rs 2,500, the Rs 1,000 is going to be a non-refundable installation charge, whereas the Rs 1,500 will be a refundable amount. As part of this connection, every JioFiber subscriber will also be provided with a Jio Set-Top Box.

Now previously it was believed that Reliance Jio would also offer a TV connection since it was providing the Set-Top Box. But, during the commercial launch, it was revealed that the consumers would have to get an LCO connection separately to pair up with the Jio Set-Top Box to actually access Satellite TV channels. This essentially means that without getting a separate LCO connection, the Jio Set-Top Box won’t be of much use to the subscribers.

Why Reliance JioFiber Subscribers Will Have to Get an LCO Connection?

The reason why this is the case is that Reliance Jio could not materialise its plans to bring IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) to its subscribers. Instead, the Mukesh Ambani led telecom operator went ahead and bought a majority stake in Hathway and DEN Networks to leverage their last-mile connectivity. Another reason was that the company was facing massive resistance from these companies regarding the bringing of IPTV as it would have put them out of business. So, Reliance Jio is now going to empower the LCOs, by getting them connections through the JioFiber subscribers who would get the Set-Top Box as part of the JioFiber connection.

So, in case you are going ahead with the decision of getting a JioFiber connection in the hopes that you will be getting a free TV connection as well, sadly that won’t be the case. But, in case 100 Mbps speed, free content, and those are things that you would like to enjoy, then the Reliance JioFiber connection can make sense.

Also, we have got to know that Reliance Jio is inviting all the LCOs to join its network and provide television channels to the JioFiber users through its Set-Top Box. At the moment, it’s unknown how many LCOs are even part of the entire JioFiber programme.

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