Jio Subscriber Base Rises to 186.6 Million, Average User Consumes 9.7GB Data Per Month

Jio has revealed its user base increased to 186.6 million in Q1 2018, up from 160.1 million it had announced in the previous quarter, with 26.5 million new users added in the period. Announcing its results for the quarter, the Mukesh Ambani-promoted Jio also said its average revenue per user (ARPU) stood at Rs. 137.1 in the January-March period, lower than the Rs. 154 ARPU it reported for the preceding three months; chief rival Airtel also announced a drop in ARPU this quarter, from Rs. 123 to Rs. 116. Jio also claims that at 0.25 percent, its customer churn is the lowest in the telecom industry.

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) said about the Q1 2018 results, “A full-blown social, mobile and digital revolution is underway across the world, and I am glad that India is not being left behind in any way with the advent of Jio. The strong financial results of Jio in a competitive market environment demonstrates the robustness of the Jio business model and ability to offer the most value to our customers and partners. Jio has demonstrated that it can scale and sustain its strong financial performance.”

Jio says that its subscribers across the country consumed 506 crore GB data in Q1 2018, with 9.7GB average data consumption per user per month. Similarly, for voice calls, the total calling traffic on the network was 37,218 crore minutes during the period, with the average subscriber consuming 716 minutes a month. The operator also said the video consumption stands at over 240 crore hours per month on its network, and an average customer watching roughly 13.8 hours of videos in a month.

While the company did not reveal how many units of Jio Phone 4G-enabled handset it sold, it did say, “The growth in subscriber base is getting further accelerated with the increasing availability of Jio Phones.”

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As for the financials, Jio — which went profitable for the first time in the Dec 2017 quarter — remained in the black, with a net profit of Rs. 510 croresthough some have questioned Jio’s accounting methods. This represents a 1.2 percent increase in net profit over the last quarter. Similarly, the revenue stood at Rs. 7,128 crores in the previous quarter, up 3.6 percent.

It was in the previous quarter that Jio acquired a majority stake in music streaming service Saavn and merged its JioMusic service with it. Also, it gave a free 1-year extension to Prime membership to all subscribers who had paid for the service before March 31, 2018.