New Delhi, Aug 29 (IANS): Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, on Monday announced that Reliance Jio will roll out standalone 5G services in select cities in the country by Diwali, which falls on October 24. To build pan-India true 5G network, Jio has committed a total investment of Rs 2 lakh crore.

To begin with, Jio announced the launch of 5G services in four metro cities -- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

These will be expanded to other cities and towns in phases rapidly to cover the entire country by December 2023.

At the ‘Reliance AGM 2022', Mukesh Ambani said it will be 'world's largest', 'standalone' Jio 5G services.

"Jio 5G services will connect everyone, every place and everything with the highest quality and affordability. We are committed to making India a data-powered economy even ahead of China and the US," said Muksesh Ambani.

Jio 5G will be the world's largest and most advanced 5G network. Unlike other operators, Jio's 5G network will be stand alone with zero dependency on 4G network.

The three-fold advantage of standalone 5G architecture, largest and best mix of spectrum and Carrier Aggregation technology means that Jio 5G will be able to offer an unparalleled combination of coverage, capacity, quality and affordability.

With standalone 5G, Jio can deliver new and powerful services like low latency, massive machine-to-machine communication, 5G voice, Edge computing and network slicing, and metaverse.

Jio has indigenously developed an end-to-end 5G stack, which is fully cloud native, software defined, digitally managed with support for even advanced features like Quantum Security.

With 5G, Jio will launch billions of smart sensors with connected intelligence that will trigger Internet of Things (IoT) and fuel the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It will connect every-one, every-place and every-thing with the highest quality and most affordable data.

Akash Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Jio Infocomm, said that Jio true 5G will deliver breakthrough increases in broadband speed and drastically lowers latency.

The announcement is in line with the government which expects affordable 5G services to be rolled out in the country by October 12.

Union IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said that installations are being done and telecom operations are busy with the seamless rollout of 5G services.

The government will ensure that the 5G plans remain affordable for the public.

Just like 3G and 4G, telcos will soon announce dedicated 5G tariff plans and according to industry experts, consumers may pay more to access the 5G services on their devices.

However, the tariff plans will come down as usage increases, and more people embrace 5G networks especially in Metros where the initial demand will come.

An immediate tariff war with the launch of 5G is unlikely, but it "will be competitive as India continues to be a price-conscious market".