Jio has been reported to sign a contract with Nokia to purchase 5G network equipment this week. The contract is said to be worth $1.7 billion. The report was in The Economic Times and the contract is expected to be signed by Thursday in Helsinki, Finland, where Nokia’s headquarters is situated.
This is followed by the $2.1 billion worth of equipment ordered by Jio from the Swedish Telecom Operator, Ericsson, in its attempt to spread 5G across India this year.
Jio chose Nokia as a major supplier in October last year as Jio is expanding wireless services in India. Jio got the airwaves worth $11 billion in a 5G spectrum auction last year and launched their 5G services in several cities in India.
HSBC, JP Morgan, and Citigroup are the companies that are backing Jio’s 5G-related purchases, while the European export credit agency named Finnvera will be issuing guarantees to the lenders to extend offshore loans to Jio, The Economic Times added.
Jio
Jio is an Indian telecommunications company and a subsidiary of Jio Platforms, headquartered in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It operates a national LTE network with coverage across all 22 telecom circles. Jio offers 4G and 4G+ services all over India and 5G services in many cities.
Jio was soft-launched on December 27, 2015, with a beta for partners and employees, and became publicly available on September 5, 2016. It is the largest mobile network operator in India and the third largest mobile network operator in the world with over 426.2 million subscribers.
In September 2019, Jio launched an FTTH (Fiber To The Home) service, offering home broadband, television, and telephone services. As of September 2020, Reliance Industries has raised Rs 1.65 lakh crore by selling a nearly 33% equity stake in Jio Platforms.
