Indian telco Reliance Jio reportedly acknowledged it has been using unlicenced spectrum as well as 5G spectrum to connect some customers for its 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services, which it says is helping lower deployment costs.
According to a report from ETTelecom on Friday, Anshuman Thakur – Reliance Jio Infocomm’s head of strategy – said during a post-earnings call for Reliance Industries that Jio has been using unlicenced band radio (UBR) equipment for some FWA deployments.
Unlicenced spectrum includes bands commonly used for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, such as 2.5 GHz and 5 GHz. 3GPP Release 16 includes specifications for 5G New Radio-Unlicensed (NR-U) that enables 5G networks to use unlicenced bands below 7 GHz. 3GPP Release 17 adds unlicenced millimetre-wave bands from 57 GHz to 71 GHz to the mix.
5G NR-U is meant to give 5G operators extra spectrum options for scenarios such as carrier aggregation and offloading, but it can also be used for standalone deployments.
Thakur said that using UBR enables Jio to serve multiple users with one FWA unit, which means the deployment cost per customer is “incrementally much less”, the report said.
Jio – which launched its JioFiberAir service in 2023 – said it had 5.6 million FWA customers at the end of FY 2025, which accounts for 85% of India’s FWA market. Thakur didn’t say how many homes are using UBR equipment.
Thakur also said Jio has set a target of connecting 100 million homes via JioAirFiber and its FTTH service, JioFiber, although he gave no timeline for hitting that target, the report said.
