Reliance Jio Q2 Net Profit Rises 28 Pc, To Rs 4,518 Cr Amid ARPU-Lift, Strong Data Traffic Growth

India's largest telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm on Friday posted a 28 per cent year-on-year jump in its net profit for the September quarter to Rs 4,518 crore, as ARPU-lift, better subscriber mix and strong data traffic growth boosted realisations. The company said it is geared up to complete the 5G rollout by December 2023.

The 5G rollout, it said, will further improve subscriber mix and per capita metrics and accelerate data growth. The revenue from operations of Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) jumped 20.2 per cent to Rs 22,521 crore for the just-ended quarter from Rs 18,735 crore in the year-ago period.

Jio's Q2 scorecard comes amid large-scale network deployments across the country for 5G services, the much-talked-about next-generation technology that promises to 'ring in' a new era of turbocharged speeds, lag-free connectivity, and new-age applications in India, the world's second-biggest smartphone market after China. Jio Platforms' (JPL) net profit increased by about 27 per cent to Rs 4,729 crore during the reported quarter.

The revenue from operations of JPL - which holds both telecom and digital business - grew by 22.7 per cent to Rs 24,275 crore compared to Rs 19,777 crore in the September 2021 quarter. The average revenue per user (ARPU) of the company during the quarter improved by 23.5 per cent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 177.2 per subscriber per month. Sequentially too, its ARPU -- a key metric for telecom players -- rose from Rs 175.7 in the June quarter.

"ARPU improved further to Rs 177.2 due to better seasonality and improving subscriber mix," the statement on Q2 results said. The total customer base of JPL stood at 42.76 crore as on September 30, 2022. Net subscriber addition was healthy at 7.7 million as gross adds remained strong at 32.7 million in 2Q FY23. During the reported quarter, average data consumption per user per month increased to 22.2 GB while per capita voice consumption was 969 minutes.

The total data traffic on Jio Network grew 22.7 per cent to 28.2 billion gigabytes. During the quarter, Jio acquired the right to use 25,040 MHz technology agnostic spectrum for 20 years for Rs 88,078 crore, which has to be paid over 20 equated annual instalments, with interest computed at 7.2 per cent per annum. This results in an annual payment of Rs 7,877 crore.

Earlier this month, Jio announced it will start the beta trial of its 5G services in four cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Varanasi from October 5 with a select set of customers. "Post the successful demonstration of its True-5G services at the India Mobile Congress 2022, Jio announced the beta trial of its True-5G services on the auspicious occasion of Dussehra.

Jio aims to complete its pan India 5G rollout by December 2023," the company said. The company said it continued to extend its leadership position in wireline services with almost 8 million connected premises. Daily customer engagement on Jio STB is approaching 6 hours with new bundled entertainment packages offered for postpaid subscribers. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries said:

"I am pleased with the record performance of our consumer businesses which continue to scale new milestones every quarter. We saw consistent net subscriber additions and higher engagement in the Digital Services segment. Jio has announced a beta trial for its industry-leading Standalone 5G services and is making rapid progress for an ambitious and the fastest ever roll out of True 5G on a pan-India basis".

Net subscriber addition was healthy at 7.7 million as gross adds remained strong at 32.7 million in 2Q FY23. In addition to powering ultra-low latency connections, which allow downloading full-length high-quality video or movie to a mobile device in a matter of seconds (even in crowded areas), typically the fifth-generation or 5G services can potentially enable solutions such as e-health, connected vehicles, more immersive augmented reality and metaverse experiences, life-saving use cases, and advanced mobile cloud gaming, among others.

(PTI)