Reliance Jio Added 25.1 Million Customers in Q3 2020, APRU Increased to Rs. 151

Reliance Jio added 25.1 million customers in the third quarter of 2020 ending December 31. The company released its financial performance report for wherein it shared that Jio made all domestic voice calls free from January 1 this year. The company credits the easing of restrictions and increase in smartphone shipments for the user base growth. Jio also experienced a higher churn rate of 1.63 percent for which the company blamed the continued impact of COVID-19 and malicious campaigns against the company in some regions – likely a reference to a movement to port out from Jio, led by farmers protesting the deregulation of agriculture sector.

Reliance Jio shared its Q3 highlights-Financial-and-Operational-Perf-(1).aspx) for FY 2020-21 wherein it reported a net quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) growth of 15.5 percent in terms of net profit. Jio is one of the largest telecom operators in the country and it added 25.1 million customers during Q3 2020 that it attributes to the increase in smartphone shipments, which was possible due to the easing of lockdown restrictions. During calendar year 2020, it saw a net subscriber addition of 40 million that the company says is the highest in the industry.

In terms of churn rate, Jio report a relatively higher churn at 1.63 percent for Q3 2020 that was due to “recent malicious and motivated campaigns against Reliance Group in select geographies” as well as the continued impact of COVID-19. The company could be referring to the farmers' protest against the government's new agricultural reforms wherein a call was made by the protesters to port out from Jio numbers.

The company reported an increase in ARPU – average revenue per user – to Rs. 151 with an overall increase in engagement. As of December 31, 2020, Jio's total customer base is 410.8 million and the total data traffic during the quarter was 1,586 crore GB, that was a 28.4 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth. The total voice traffic grew by 18 percent YoY to 97,496 crore minutes.

Jio also shared that its advanced tests with Jio 5G radio integrated with 5G core saw throughputs in excess of 1Gbps.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director at Reliance said, “India is today among the leaders driving the Digital Revolution in the world. In order to maintain this lead, Jio will continue to accelerate the rollout of its digital platforms and indigenously developed next generation 5G stack and make it affordable and available everywhere.”

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