See their full fiber network map here:- jio route

Let me explain how mobile towers work in simple words. Mobile towers are like large WiFis. Just like the WiFi in your home is connected by wires to your internet service providers, mobile towers needs to be connected to fiber optic cables under the towers and these wires connect to large ISPs. So, when you use 3G/4G, you are only communicating wirelessly inbetween your smartphone and the tower. Once the data reaches the tower, the entire data is sent through these fiber optic cables.

This is why fast fiber network cables are really important for providing fast 4G. Other service providers are stuck in a major dilemma. Since they already have fiber network laid for 2G/3G, they just replace the mobile tower with new 4G equipment while relying on old fiber networks. They are worried about upgrading to better infrastructure because last time when they upgraded to 3G, they lost thousands of crores in Investment as 3G never generated as much income as they hoped for.

Jio knows that 5G will come soon, so they are making their entire fiber optic network in such a way that it can be seamlessly upgraded to 5G.

#2 Only company to have 4G spectrum in all zones

JIO won spectrum in all 22 zones of India during 2010 auctions and they were building their network infrastructure till now. Jio has the capability of providing 4G services in all 22 circles, Bharti Airtel can provide it in 15, Idea in 10 and Vodafone in 8 circles. So, they are the only company which can give 4G all over India.

#3 Largest 4G network in India

You must have seen advertisements from other network providers on TV especially during T20 cricket world-cup, claiming to be the 'largest 4G network in India' or 'Largest 4G network in the world'.

These advertisements are meant to put the words 'largest 4G network' in your brains, so that when Jio comes out and they claim to be the largest 4G network, people won't believe them. This is probably the only way for these network providers to survive as they have really small network coverage.

But, when Jio gets launched, it's coverage is said to be bigger than 2G coverage of most other players! Jio will have 4G network coverage at over 1.02 lakh villages and 18,000 towns in their first phase. Currently 4G is available to less than 15% of India's population and Jio will cover 70% of India at launch. They plans to cover 90% of India with 4G by 2017 and all of India by 2018.

#4 They only have 4G

This has many benefits to both company and users.

• Company can fully focus on one technology instead of maintaining 2G+3G+4G at all places.
• It is cheaper as they have only one service.
• One problem I have faced with 3G is that it often automatically switches to slow 2G and this fluctuation is annoying. Since Jio only have 4G, you will either get high speed internet or no internet.
• This ensures that 4G won't face the same fate as 3G which was launched with much fanfare but we still don't have 3G coverage at most places. Jio will be forced to build 4G towers everywhere.

They currently have agreements with BSNL and Reliance communications for using their networks to provide 2G/3G at places which currently don't have Jio's 4G.

#5 Huge investment

They have invested over Rs 150,000 crore into this project. Just to put things into perspective,

In the last couple of years, JIO has already spent almost as much as the major incumbent telecom firms, like Bharti Airtel Ltd, Idea Cellular Ltd and Vodafone India Ltd, have spent over the past more than 20 years of being in operations.

This is good for India's economy and at the same time provide a good service to millions of people. This forces other players to invest more into their own infrastructure. Airtel have already announced that they will invest 60,000crore in modernizing their network.