RJio Q3 net profit up 65%; subscribers base at 280 mn

Mumbai, Jan 17 (IANS) Telecom major Reliance Jio Infocomm on Thursday reported a 65 per cent increase in its standalone net profit for the October-December 2018 period.

Its standalone net profit stood at Rs 831 crore in the third quarter of the financial year 2018-19, against Rs 504 crore reported in October-December 2017-18, the company said in a statement.

Reliance Jio's operating revenue during the period under review stood at Rs 10,383 crore, 50.9 per cent higher than the Rs 6,879 crore earned during the corresponding period of the last financial year.

Its subscriber base as on December 31, 2018 was 280.01 million.

As per the statement, Jio has sustained its pace of underlying subscriber additions with net addition during the quarter of 27.9 million (as against previous four-quarter average of 28.4 million).

Commenting on the results, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries (RIL) said: "The journey of Jio has been truly remarkable and has surpassed all expectations. The Jio family is now 280 million strong and growing on one of the world's largest mobile data networks, in line with our vision of connecting everyone and everything, everywhere - always at the highest quality and the most affordable price."

Further, average data consumption per user per month was 10.8 GB and average voice consumption was recorded at 794 minutes per user per month. Video consumption drove most of the usage, increasing to 460 crore hours per month, it said.

Jio's Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) during the quarter ended December was Rs 130 per subscriber per month.

Further, the company said: "expansion of all-IP 4G LTE network coverage to 99 per cent of population is on track to be completed over the next few months."

JioGigaFiber services for home broadband, entertainment, smart home solutions, wireline and enterprise has witnessed overwhelming customer interest across 1,400 cities, said the statement.

"Jio is currently connecting homes on priority based on the requests received and optimising its service offerings," the company said.

RIL awaits regulatory approvals to complete the recently announced investment in DEN Networks Ltd, Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd.

"Post completion of the transaction, Reliance and Jio will be strengthening the business model of 27,000 LCOs (local cable operators) that are aligned with DEN and Hathway across 750 cities, by creating multiple future opportunities with new services and platforms."

On the transition to a new non-Aadhaar e-KYC model for verification and enrolling of subscribers, it said that "efficient sales channel has successfully transitioned to the new digital KYC and on-boarding process during the quarter and sustained the underlying run-rate of subscriber additions".

"Our relentless focus is on creating platforms to truly transform the digital life of every citizen of India across connectivity, commerce, media and entertainment, financial services, agriculture, education and healthcare, which will further enhance productivity and economic prospects of our nation," Ambani said.