Q4 results: Telecom tariff hike rings in 26% jump in Jio Platforms profit

Subscriber growth maintains momentum as 5G users hit 191 million

Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL), which runs India’s largest mobile network operator Reliance Jio, on Tuesday reported a strong 25.7  per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) increase in net profit to ₹7,022 crore for the January-March quarter of 2024-25 (Q4FY25) as a result of a hike in telecom tariffs imposed in early-July 2024. On a sequential basis, the holding company for Jio and other digital businesses of the Reliance group, witnessed its net profit rise by 2.34 per cent.

 

The telco’s Y-o-Y rate of growth in net profit maintained momentum given the 26 per cent, 23.4 per cent, 11.7 per cent, and 12 per cent net profit growth registered in the previous four quarters. The telco’s average revenue per user (ARPU) in Q4 rose to ₹206.2, up from ₹203.3 in Q3. Before that, it had broken a four-month slump to rise to ₹191.5 in Q2. Calculated yearly, ARPU was higher by 13.4 per cent in Q4.

 

The company attributed this to the continued impact of the tariff hike and better subscriber mix, even though the numbers were partly impacted by the fewer number of days in the quarter.

 

In Q4, revenue from operations grew 17.7 per cent Y-o-Y to ₹33,986 crore. Revenue had grown by 19.4 per cent, 18 per cent and 12.8 per cent in the preceding three quarters. Jio Platforms’ earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) for the quarter was a record ₹17,016 crore, up 18.5 per cent Y-o-Y. 

 

Strong subscriber growth

 

Jio said that 191 million subscribers have migrated to Jio’s 5G network, and account for 45 per cent of Jio’s wireless data traffic, up from 40 per cent, 34 per cent, 31 per cent, and 28 per cent in the preceding quarters. Jio’s 5G users now represent the largest 5G subscriber base for any telecom operator outside China. This essentially means 45 per cent of data is being provided to users for free by the telco considering Jio does not charge extra from 5G subscribers, and this increasing gap has to be addressed in the future, Jio’s leadership said on Friday.

 

Overall, Jio Platforms had 488.2 million users at the end of Q4, up from 482.1 million at the end of Q3. It gained 6.1 million subscribers in the latest quarter, up sharply  from the 3.3 million additions in Q3. The telco had lost 10.9 million subscribers in Q2 following the tariff hike. Before that, the telco had added users for seven straight quarters.  ALSO READ: Reliance Retail Q4 results: Net profit rises 30.4% to Rs 3,519 crore

 

“Jio is working on enabling large scale AI (artificial intelligence) infrastructure and services that will add an intelligence layer to all Jio services,” said Akash M Ambani, chairman, Reliance Jio Infocomm.

 

Engagement on the network remained strong, with total data and voice traffic increasing by 19.6 per cent and 3.5 per cent annually, respectively.  Per capita data consumption by Jio users rose to 33.6 gigabytes (GB) per month, or more than 1 GB per day.