Jio’s 5G Rollout In Full Swing, More Than 10.8 Cr Users On The High-Speed Network

Giving a snapshot of its 5G rollout, telecom operator Reliance Jio said it has onboarded more than 10.8 Cr subscribers so far on the high-speed internet network.

The company made the announcement while declaring its financial results for the quarter ended March 2024. 

“Performance of the digital services segment has been boosted by accelerated expansion of subscriber base, supported by both mobility and fixed wireless services. With over 108 Mn True 5G customers, Jio truly leads the 5G transformation in India,” said Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL’s) chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani.

The company said that the 5G users account for nearly 28% of Jio’s wireless data traffic. It added that the entire 5G data is being carried on “Jio’s own 5G+4G combo core”.

The combo core is Jio Platforms’ cloud-native solution that helps it deploy 5G alongside 4G services. 

The company also claimed that it has rolled out its 5G wireless broadband service, JioAirFiber, across nearly 5,900 cities and towns so far. Jio Platforms added that it plans to ramp up the coverage to pan-India “soon”.

Jio said that average daily data usage for AirFiber subscribers stood at nearly 13 GB which, as per the company, is 30% higher than JioFiber subscribers. 

Meanwhile, the digital arm of the conglomerate, Jio Platforms, continued to see healthy growth in the fourth quarter (Q4) of the financial year 2023-24 (FY24). Net profit jumped 12% year-on-year (YoY) to INR 5,583 Cr in Q4 FY24, while revenue from operations grew 13.4% to INR 28,871 Cr during the quarter under review from INR 25,465 Cr in Q4 FY23. 

The jump in the operating revenue was largely on account of a “robust” subscriber growth across mobility and fixed wireline services as well as an improving average revenue per user (ARPU) mix.

Jio Platforms’ ARPU improved to INR 181.7 per month in Q4 FY24 from INR 178.8 in the year-ago quarter. On a sequential basis, there was no change in the metric. The telco’s customer base hovered around 48.18 Cr at the end of the March 2024 quarter.

“Jio continues to maintain its network leadership and offer innovative digital solutions to multiple customer cohorts. This is driving consistent outperformance in terms of subscriber additions and engagement levels. Continued acceleration in growth of (the) JioAirFiber subscriber base and ramp up of digital services will sustain industry-leading growth for Jio,” said Reliance Jio Infocomm’s chairman Akash Ambani.

Overall, RIL’s consolidated operating revenue rose 2.6% YoY to INR 9.14 Lakh Cr in FY24 and net profit rose 7.3% to INR 79,020 Cr.