Reliance Jio To Launch Air Fiber; Profit Up 13% To ₹4716 Crore In Q4FY23

“In the cities where we have deployed 5G we are already seeing that there is a great increase in consumption, as high as 3-4 times even from a very high consumption base that we have with 4G and even without any change in tariffs. This means that we can anticipate ARPU growth just driven by consumption alone," said Kiran Thomas, director of Jio Platforms on Friday, during a presentation showcasing the carrier’s results for the quarter ended March 2023.

ARPU, a key metric of profitability for a telecom service provider, stood at ₹178.8, up 6.7% from ₹167.6 the year before and ₹178.2 in the quarter ended December 2022 due to impact of tariff hike, better subscriber mix and data add-ons within select customer cohorts. The service provider competes with No 2 Bharti Airtel and No 3 Vodafone Idea, that are yet to release their quarterly financial numbers.

India’s largest telecom services provider plans to launch Air Fiber or its fixed wireless access service which can offer broadband like speeds through wireless connectivity, sometime this year and will be pitched to customers already using its Jio Fiber plans that will be expanded to markets across the country in the coming months.

Jio intends to derive growth in the broadband segment through the same model it used for entering the mobile services segment, by becoming the second SIM of a consumer but eventually taking the primary SIM space and hence higher revenue from the same customer.

“You can literally offer that service in a matter of hours. We are looking to launch this as soon as we hit critical mass with our 5G rollout," Thomas said. He added that the carrier was targeting 100 million homes through Jio Fiber and Air Fiber services over the next two to three years.

Jio reported a net profit of ₹4,716 crore for the quarter ended March 2023, 13% higher than ₹4,173 crore in the same quarter last financial year, even as sequentially profits rose by 1.6% from ₹4,638 crore in the quarter ended December 2022.

The telecom arm of Reliance Industries Limited, clocked revenues of ₹23,499 crore in the same period, which was up 12.2% versus ₹20,945 crore and up 1.9% sequentially from ₹23,061 crore, it said in a note to the exchanges on Friday. The carrier attributed the growth in revenue to the full impact of tariff hike, ramp-up of wireline services and continued subscriber addition for mobility services.

Jio’s fourth quarter numbers were better than analyst expectations. Jeffries expected Jio's revenue to be sequentially flat or up 10% on-year.

For the financial year ended March 2023, Reliance Jio's net profit rose 22.87% to ₹24,429 crore from ₹19,865 crore from a year-ago, on the back of revenue which rose to ₹91,148 crore, up 18.06% from ₹77,204 crore in March 2022.

The carrier has been aggressively rolling out 5G network across the country and recently created coverage for more than 2300 cities across the country with deployment of more than 125,000 sites and over 350,000 cells of 5G network in 700 Mhz and 3500Mhz bands.

“Jio continues to digitally empower millions of citizens across the nation, extending True 5G reach to 2,300+ cities and towns in a short span of six months. With steady growth in mobility and FTTH subscriber base and an expanding bouquet of content and digital services, the Jio business continues to deliver impressive growth in operating profits," said RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani.

The Mukesh Ambani promoted telco launched the beta version of its services which are available for users who are invited onto the network, unlike Airtel which said it had crossed 10 million 5G customers within four months of launching 5G services.

“This is the fastest rollout of 5G network anywhere in the world. By the end of the year which is a shade over a year, we would have largely replicated our 4G footprint as well," Jio Platforms’ Thomas added.

The carrier said that its parent company Jio Platforms’ gross revenue for the quarter was ₹29,871 crore higher by 14.3% on-year, while net profit for the quarter was ₹4,984 crore, higher by 15.6% on-year. For the quarter ended March 2023, EBITDA was ₹12,767 crore up by 2% on-quarter, driven by strong revenue growth and margin improvement. EBITDA margin was at 50.2%.

Total customer base as on 31 March was at 439.3 million driven by continued strength in gross additions at 29.2 million for the year.