Reliance Jio’s new Rs 198 broadband plan is now available to users across India. But this can certainly mean that customers will not see Media Cable after all. For those who don’t know, Media Cable is a long-awaited product from Reliance Jio, which has not yet reached the market even more than six years after its announcement. The premise or purpose of the product is to allow users to connect their smartphones to their TVs to play content directly on the TV. The TV doesn’t even have to be smart. You can also use any old TV and mirror your device to it. This would have helped the users to watch IPL (Indian Premier League) on TV with ease.
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But that probably won’t happen now. Reliance Jio has announced a new Rs 198 per month broadband subscription for users. With this plan, users get 10 Mbps of speed and unlimited data every month, which is 3.3 TB per month just like any other plan. Users only need to pay Rs 100 more to access OTT (over-the-top) platforms with this plan. These platforms would include JioCinema where you can also watch IPL. The best part is that users also get a free Jio STB (Set-Top Box), which they can connect to their TV to watch OTT content.
Again, the TV doesn’t have to be a smart TV for the Jio STB to work properly. Jio would also like things to go wireless today, and rather than introduce a Jio Media cable, the best way forward is to make access to Jio STB so affordable that you don’t have to worry about your entertainment needs on TV . The JioCinema app has already seen several million downloads in recent days as users who watch IPL on their phone or laptop can easily watch it for free.
Reliance Jio is likely looking to disrupt the pay TV market with its new broadband plan. It is very affordable and replaces the need to get a traditional set-top box from one of the DTH (Direct-to-Home) operators. DTH players will have to find a solution to counteract this move by Reliance Jio so that they don’t lose more customers in the short term.
