Reliance Jio reports 4% profit growth in Q2 – subscriber addition, ARPU growth slows down

• India’s largest telecom operator, Reliance Jio, on Friday announced its September 2022 quarter results.
• Jio’s average revenue per user rose marginally to ₹177.2 in the second quarter of FY23 from ₹175.7 in the previous quarter.
• Jio said that it plans to complete its pan-India 5G rollout by December 2023.

India’s largest telecom provider, Reliance Jio announced its September quarter results showing profit growth of 4% sequentially at ₹4,729 crore increasing from ₹4,530 crore in the previous quarter. On a yearly basis, its profit surged by nearly 27%.

Its revenue from operations also witnessed a mere 4% sequential growth increasing to ₹28,506 crore as compared to ₹27,527 crore in the quarter before. On a year-on-year basis, this is an increase of nearly 23%.

While its new subscriber addition slowed down, the average revenue per user (ARPU) marginally improved due to better seasonality and improving subscriber mix, the company said.

Jio reported ARPU at ₹177.2 per subscriber per month, witnessing a mere 0.8% growth on a sequential basis and 23.5% growth on a yearly basis.

Analysts had expected a moderate growth in ARPU and weakness in subscriber additions compared with the previous two quarters as tariff hike benefits are largely behind it.

Reliance Jio added 7.7 million net subscribers as compared to 10 million in the previous quarter.

With this, its total customer base as on September 30, 2022 stood at 427.6 million.

Jio aims to complete its pan India 5G rollout by December 2023
Currently, Reliance Jio is in the process of network deployments across the country for 5G services. Earlier this month, it announced that it begin beta trial of its 5G services in four cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Varanasi.

In the results release, it informed the target to complete its pan India 5G rollout by December 2023.

“We saw consistent net subscriber additions and higher engagement in the Digital Services segment. Jio has announced beta trials 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 pan-India basis,” said Mukesh D Ambani, chairman and MD at Reliance Industries.

Ahead of its earnings announcement, shares of RIL closed 1.22% lower at ₹2,470 apiece.

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