It's Jio vs Airtel again, this time in a 5G FWA showdown

5G FWA is viewed as the solution to the much-anticipated, but as of yet unmet, need for high-performance broadband in areas where service is still absent, particularly the rural sector.

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel are at it again. This time, the 5G FWA (Fixed Wireless Access) space will serve as the battlefield.

The implications are high since FWA may be the first 5G use case that allows telecom companies to recoup their significant investments in the rollout of the newest technology.

At the end of 2022, there were 100 million connections worldwide; by 2028, that number is predicted to reach 300 million, with the bulk of those connections being 5G. By the end of May 2022, 85 operators across 46 nations had started offering 5G FWA services.

By 2027, FWA connections will have tripled in size, bringing broadband to over 800 million people, and will be worth US $88.5 billion, growing at a 99.3% compound annual growth rate.

Reliance Jio introduced its JioAirFiber service in 8 cities currently including  Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune on the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi.

Telecommunications service provider Bharti Airtel also, announced the launch of Airtel Xstream AirFiber, its fixed wireless access (FWA) offering, on 5G for consumers in Delhi and Mumbai in August this year.

In comparison to the present rate of 15k premises linked via fiber per day, Jio anticipates its FWA service to connect 150k premises daily. Additionally, it declared that over the next three years, it will increase the addressable market for FTTH/FWA to more than 200 million homes. The service will be introduced in a number of locations, and Airtel aims to gradually expand it across the country. The "Make in India" initiative will be used to manufacture all Xstream AirFiber products in India. Airtel plans to launch the service in multiple cities and scale up nationally in a phased manner.

With the exception of the lowest level, the cost is similar to its current Jio Fiber product. Analysts believe that the pricing is not disruptive because it is equivalent to that of the competitors, even if it is somewhat more expensive and offers additional advantages. According to estimates, JioAirFiber alone may generate a USD 4–9 billion yearly income opportunity if it is adopted by 50–100 million homes.

The rise of the 5G FWA industry in the new era will be accelerated by the growing need for high-speed internet connectivity with low latency. In reality, 5G FWA is viewed as the solution to the much-anticipated, but as of yet unmet, need for high-performance broadband in areas where service is still absent, particularly the rural sector.

Because it offers a less expensive option to fiber to the home (FTTH) and offers comparable speeds, 5G FWA has some allure. FWA connects existing cell towers and antennas that are on or in customers' houses or businesses using radio waves as opposed to the expensive and time-consuming procedure of digging trenches and laying fiber across numerous places.

After the Covid era, the necessity for seamless connectivity intensified. Since most data usage occurs indoors, Jio and Airtel will stop at nothing with their 5G FWA service to capitalize on this expanding market.