Ril Jio eyes big slice of $1.4-trillion digital economy

Mumbai:Jio Platforms plans to increase revenue per customer mainly by offering more services rather than raising tariffs, though it retains the option of higher prices, managing director Akash Ambani said on Thursday, ahead of the company’s initial public offering (IPO).

“We always have the ability to take up prices,” Ambani told a press conference, adding that Jio would prefer to offer customers additional services and charge for them rather than rely primarily on higher data prices.

He gave no timeline for a tariff increase, but said telecom spending per user as a share of India’s per-capita income had roughly halved to about 1 per cent since Jio entered the market in 2016, leaving room for growth.

Jio charges about Rs 4.9 per GB of data against the industry average of Rs 7.5, while its customers consume an average 43.7 GB monthly. Average revenue per user (ARPU) rose to Rs 215.6 a month.

“We expect a USD 1.4-trillion digital economy by FY31; we will take a huge market share of this,” Ambani said, identifying mobility, home broadband, and enterprise and international services as the company’s growth engines.

Jio carries more than 60 per cent of India’s wireless data traffic and had 533.3 million customers at the end of June, including 284.9 million 5G users, the largest 5G customer base outside China. Its infrastructure includes 3,60,537 towers and 26,800 MHz of spectrum.

Home broadband is a key growth driver. Jio had 28.6 million fixed broadband customers and accounted for 67.5 per cent of India’s net fixed broadband additions in FY26. It is also targeting India’s Rs 5.1 trillion enterprise digital services market. Ambani said new services, including voice-based artificial intelligence features, could push Jio’s EBITDA margin beyond 53.3 per cent, reported in the April-June quarter.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The Hans India