Jio adds 15.3 million users in Q2, Reliance plans to spend 70 billion a quarter on Jio

As per the latest Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) financial and operational performance report for the quarter 2, Jio's customer base has been a swift surge. The report notes that the Reliance Jio has added around 15.3 million subscribers in the last three months. However, instead of adding millions of customers to Jio, the company - as pet the RIL financial and operational performance report has gone through a loss of Rs. 271 crores. Even after the experiencing loss, Reliance says that the company's financial performance is 'strong'.

By adding about 15.3 million users, Jio grew its customer base to 136.8 million in three months. In the report, RIL also posted that the company - Jio has seen a total wireless traffic of 374 crore gigabytes (3.74 billion GB) in Q2, which ended on Sept 30. It also says that Jio is touting the highest per capita data consumption of 9.62GB per user per month.

Commenting on the quarterly performance result, Reliance Industries Chairman - Mukesh Ambani says, "The rapid uptake of Jio services reflects the latent need of the society. We are confident that Jio will bring significant benefits to the Indian economy and the Indian customers and will take India to a much higher pedestal... The strong financial results of Jio demonstrates the robust business model of Jio and the significant efficiencies that the Company has built through its investment in the latest 4G technology and right business strategy."

Getting into the statistics shared by Reliance Jio, the company is said that the average average revenue per user (ARPU) on one user per month was around Rs 156.4. While the average voice traffic in the period stood at 2.67 billion minutes a day. The report further reveals that this quarter has seen the highest per capita voice consumption which is around 626 minutes per month.

RIL in the report further noted that Jio will turn profitable "shortly." The company - stating it's future plan states that they are aiming to pump around $1 billion into the venture for each of the next few quarters. "Jio's net debt stood at 490 billion rupees," says joint Reliance finance chief V Srikanth. He further adds that, "parent Reliance's debt will peak in the quarter to December or the next quarter, after which it will begin sliding, suggesting robust growth for the conglomerate." "I can only see it (net income) turning positive very shortly," Srikant adds.

Stating their roadmap, Reliance Jio's head of strategy, Anshuman Thakur says that they will continue to spend around 70 billion rupees a quarter on Jio for the next few quarters. He further adds that Reliance has already added over $30 billion into Jio until date.

In the report, Reliance further noted that around 27 million LTE phones were sold in India in Q2. "On gross add basis, Jio achieved over two-third market share of the incremental smartphones sold in the country. The cumulative LTE smartphone base is estimated to have reached 160 million. Jio has over 85 percent market share in the LTE smartphone base in the country," it noted.

(With Reuters input)