Reliance Jio reportedly working on introducing its own Direct-to-Home (DTH) services in the coming months. Now, we have the first clue about how the purported Reliance Jio set-top box and its remote controller would look like, thanks to a pair of leaked images.Shaped like a curved cylinder and featuring a glossy black texture, the design of the Jio DTH device is in great contrast to the existing set top boxes which carry a rather regular box-shaped design. The unusually designed set-top box is likely to be connected to Jio Fiber or the dish, GizmoTimes reports. Jio Fiber is the company’s fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) service that is claimed to offer broadband speeds of up to 1Gbps.
Based on the leaked images, the rumored device comes with a number of ports. There is a S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format) port, an ethernet port, an HDMI port, along with a USB port. If the image is to be believed, the set-top box will then allow one to directly plug in their broadband cable for internet-based viewing of shows or use an external drive to watch content on a screen channelled through the set top box.
Additionally, the set-top box is accompanied by a remote control which looks like a standard controller but has interesting features. The remote control features a button for mic option, which means it could come with voice recognition capabilities. There is also a button for ‘Jio’ which essentially suggests that there will be some integration of Reliance’s Jio content services along with the set-top box.
It is expected that the rumoured device will hit the market around March or April. This falls in line with the wider rollout of the Jio Fiber broadband service which is also scheduled around the same time. Given that the service is currently under pilot in some parts of Mumbai with speeds ranging between 70Mbps to 100Mbps, it will be interesting to see how disruptive Jio’s DTH services prove. As with its 4G services, Jio is offering an introductory offer with the FTTH service for the first three months. However, users need to pay charges of Rs 4,500, for installation and the router.
