Reliance Jio is making the most money it has ever made from its subscribers

• India’s largest telecom provider, Reliance Jio, on Friday announced its Q3 FY22 results.
  
• The past three months saw Jio’s average revenue per user go back above ₹150, which was the level we saw exactly a year ago, before the second wave of COVID-19 hit the country.
  
• Despite this, Jio’s subscriber count declined when compared to the previous quarter.
  

Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom company, announced its financial results for the October to December 2021 period, showing strong momentum in how much it makes on an average from each subscriber, also known as ARPU (average revenue per user).

Reliance Jio posted 18% growth in its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) between October and December 2021, much higher than analyst expectations of 4-5% growth.

Interestingly, this is the highest ARPU that Jio has recorded so far, going past the December 2020 number. This is after accounting for the change in the IUC (interconnect usage charges) regime, which went live in January 2021, resulting in a decline in the ARPU numbers for all telecom companies.


After resisting analyst warnings for several months, Jio finally raised tariffs after its rivals Airtel and Vodafone Idea announced hikes to the tune of 20-25%. Jio’s tariffs are still the cheapest amongst the three, and analysts at JP Morgan expect the benefits from this hike to flow only in the June 2022 quarter.

However, the Mukesh Ambani-led telco has continued to expand its lead over Airtel and Vodafone Idea in terms of subscribers. The launch of the affordable JioPhone Next has helped the telco cement its lead over its rival Airtel.

Jio reported that its total customer base stood at 421 million subscribers, after falling below the 430 million figure in the previous quarter. However, this is still not as high as its number in the June quarter.

Reliance Jio’s last quarter in numbers

Jio reported a 2% increase in profit between October and December 2021, increasing to ₹3,795 crore from ₹3,728 crore in the previous quarter. On a year-on-year basis, its profit surged by nearly 9%.

Jio also witnessed a healthy surge of 4% in its revenue during the quarter, increasing to ₹24,176 crore as compared to ₹23,222 crore in the quarter before. On a year-on-year basis, this is an increase of nearly 14%.

Both data and voice usage saw a substantial increase this quarter

Data traffic saw an increase of nearly 6% compared to the previous quarter. The average data usage per user during the quarter stood at 18.4GB, as compared to 17.6GB in the previous quarter.

Voice usage increased to 901 minutes from 840 minutes in the quarter before.

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