Although user growth grew considerably in this quarter, the company faced challenges due to the pandemic and subsequent economic disruptions to the supply chain.
Key Takeaways
- Jio customers consumed over 2 exabytes of data during Q1FY22, a significant quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) boost from 1.6EB, attributable at least partly to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic; the year-on-year (YoY) increase in data consumption was around 38%. This translates to over 2 million terabytes consumed by Jio users over the last three months.
- Per-user data consumption stood at 15.6GB a month, compared to 13.3GB a month in the previous quarter.
- Average Revenue Per User stood at Rs 138.4, barely moving from the previous quarter when it stood at Rs 138.
Source: Reliance Industries Limited
Revenue flat, but healthy user adds
Operating revenue has barely picked up over the last year, even getting a bit depressed in the quarter ended March, before the second wave. Reliance blamed the lackluster QoQ pick-up in growth on the abolition of the Interconnect Usage Charge, a system where telcos used to pay each other a metered fee for calls placed on each other’s network. The “like-for-like growth” ignoring this impact, Jio said, was 19.3%.
Source: Reliance Industries Limited
User growth, on the other hand, grew considerably, likely outpacing rivals Vi and Airtel:
Source: Reliance Industries Limited
COVID-19 challenges
The company said that it had trouble scaling fixed broadband and TV subscriptions during the second wave, in spite of telecom being an essential activity — this may perhaps be due to trouble in supply chain management and shuttering of associated businesses
The COVID-19 pandemic and related economic disruptions have delayed execution of:
- Challenges in the ramp-up of customer additions for Homes & Enterprises
- Delay in incremental monetisation of Connectivity and Digital platforms — Reliance Presentation
Growth of fixed broadband: While overall the business suffered from some impact due to COVID-19, home broadband consumption thrived. “Average home consumes almost 300 GB of data per month and trending upwards,” the company said. It also said that the company now has over 3 million JioFiber customers. That translates to a 13% market share less than five years after its launch in an internet service provider market that is far more competitive than the telecom market.
Financial Snapshot — Q1FY22
- Revenue: Rs 18,952 crore (up ~19% YoY)
- EBITDA: Rs 8,892 crore (up 21.3% YoY)
- Net Profit: Rs 3,651 crore (up from Rs 2,520 crore YoY)
Source: Reliance Industries Limited
Press Release and Results | Presentation
Also read:
- Reliance Jio And Airtel Added 7.3M And 4.8M Active Connections, Vi Lost 0.38M In March 2021
- Jio Objects To TRAI Proposal To Give Fixed Line Broadband License Fee Concessions As DBT
- Airtel, Jio Offer Free Calling For Low-Income Subscribers
