Jio 5G network reaches 331 cities; JPL to acquire Mimosa Networks

Indian full-service provider Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) has extended its 5G network to 27 more cities across 13 states, bringing its total coverage to 331 cities nationwide. Users in these cities will be invited to sign up to the operator’s ‘Jio Welcome Offer’ plan, which provides customers with compatible devices access to unlimited downloads over 5G at no additional cost. Jio claims its network is capable of delivering download speeds of up to and above 1Gbps.

Meanwhile a sister company of Jio’s parent company Jio Platforms Limited (JPL) – which is majority owned by Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) – has agreed to acquire US-based equipment manufacturer Mimosa Networks for USD60 million. The deal was signed between JPL and Mimosa’s parent Airspan Networks Holdings and will see another of JPL’s subsidiaries, Radisys Corporation, take over Mimosa. In a regulatory filing RIL noted that Mimosa ‘has a diverse portfolio of point-to-point and point-to-multi-point products based on Wi-Fi 5 and the newer Wi-Fi 6E technologies as well as related accessories,’ adding that these solutions have ‘use cases in the backhaul requirements for 5G and fibre-to-the-x (FTTx)/fixed wireless access (FWA) rollouts’. RIL also pointed out that Jio has been a ‘major’ customer of Mimosa. For its part, Radisys describes itself as a telecom solutions provider that specialises in open and disaggregated platforms and solutions.

Commenting on the acquisition Jio President Mathew Oommen was quoted as saying: ‘Over the years, our collaboration with Airspan has resulted in ground-breaking architectures for high speed connectivity for both the end user and for backhaul applications. Acquisition of Mimosa will further accelerate Jio’s innovation and leadership in the production of telecom network products that deliver value to consumers and enterprises across the globe with cost-effective, rapidly deployable fixed and mobile broadband.’