Reliance Jio expanded its JioPC cloud service in September 2026 to any internet user in India, removing the previous requirement to be a Jio broadband subscriber. The service streams a virtual PC from Jio’s data centers to an existing computer, offering up to eight virtual CPUs, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage — without any hardware upgrades.
JioPC was originally launched in July 2025 for Jio’s own broadband customers. Plans now start at ₹1,000 (about $11) for two months, with 12-month subscriptions priced at ₹4,000 (around $42) for 8GB of RAM and 500GB of storage, or ₹5,000 (about $53) for the 16GB RAM and 1TB configuration.
Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio, India’s most valuable company, is positioning the service as a way to extend the life of computers up to eight years old by offloading processing and storage to its cloud infrastructure. The move comes as PC replacement cycles in India have lengthened — consumers and small businesses now replace machines every five to six years, up from four to five years in 2022, according to IDC senior market analyst Bharath Shenoy.
India had more than 65 million PCs in use in 2025, with IDC estimating the installed base could approach 69 million by end of 2026.
Prabhu Ram, vice president at CyberMedia Research, said JioPC could create “a parallel, price-sensitive tier” for households and students “for whom buying a new AI-capable PC was never really on the table.” He added that Jio is “challenging the traditional hardware upgrade cycle” by broadening the service to non-Jio users.
The service faces several challenges. JioPC requires a stable internet connection, making it vulnerable to disruptions that a conventional PC would not experience — a concern particularly relevant in smaller cities and towns. Refurbished PCs also offer low-cost hardware ownership without connectivity dependence. Jio has not disclosed whether its cloud infrastructure includes dedicated AI accelerators, a feature associated with the current generation of AI PCs.
Ram said the real test is whether users come to see cloud computing as a “daily utility” rather than an “opportunistic workaround.”
Source: TechCrunch