Jio to cross 500 mn subscriber mark by FY26, maintain market leadership

Currently, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel command more than 80% of the country's mobile network business. Jio has a market share of 48%, whereas, Airtel has 35% of it

The country's largest mobile network provider, Reliance Jio is set to cross 500 million subscribers by the financial year 2025-26 (FY26), a report published in The Economic Times (ET) has said.

Expanding its network, Jio will acquire an estimated market share of 47 per cent by FY26 according to a Sanford C Bernstein report cited by the newspaper.

Global brokerages that keep an eye on the telecommunications space expect Jio's network to expand reaching 490-500 million subscribers by FY25 itself.

Notably, Jio added 6.4 million customers to its network in the fourth quarter of FY23. Currently, Jio's subscriber count stands at 439.3 million as of March 2023, the report said.

Quoting insights from the Bernstein report, ET reported that Jio has the potential to become one of the most attractive telecom companies globally, both from the scale and growth perspective.

Interestingly, the brokerage said that some of the existing private equity investors in Jio Platforms may consider exiting the company in the future.

It is important to note that Jio received investments of $20 billion against a 33 per cent stake in Jio Platforms. It received investments from strategic investors like Meta and Google. Additionally, it also got funds from private equity investors like Vista, KKR, Silverlake, PIF, etc, the report added.

Bernstein said that it values Jio's digital services business at $112 billion (gross). Currently, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel command more than 80 per cent of the country's mobile network business. Jio has a market share of 48 per cent, whereas, Airtel has 35 per cent of it, ET reported.