Jio posts net loss at Rs 270.6 crore in Q2

NEW DELHI: Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom unit of Reliance Industries, reported a revenue of Rs 6,147 crore in the second quarter ended September 30, 2017.

The net loss for the quarter was Rs 270.6 crore, according to company.

The telecom operator said it had added 15.3 million new users during the quarter taking the total subscriber number to 138.6 million at the end of September 30.

“The world is transforming, turning digital and India is not going to be left behind. India is ready to go digital, move from voice to data and Jio is creating the foundation of data for the next generation business. 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. We are focussed on providing multi-layered digital services on top of the basic connectivity service to optimally utilise our world class infrastructure," said Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited.

"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. As always, the Group has demonstrated excellence in execution, vision and commercial acumen," he added.

The average revenue per user (ARPU) for the period was at Rs 156.4 per subscriber per month and the earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) came to Rs 261 crore for the same period.

The standalone earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the quarter came at Rs 1,443 crore and the EBITDA margin came in at 23.5 percent.

Jio reported a 267 crore minutes per day voice traffic while the wireless data traffic stood at 378 crore GB.

Since commencement of services on 5th September 2016, Jio has become the fastest growing technology company in the world. It crossed 100 million subscribers in 170 days, adding at an average rate of 6 lakh subscribers per day. Jio continues its rapid ramp-up of subscriber base and as of 30th September 2017, there are 138.6 million subscribers on the network.

During the quarter ended 30th September 2017, it is estimated that around 27 million LTE smartphones were sold in India. 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% market share in the LTE smartphone base in the country. Jio has tied up with leading smartphone OEMs such as Apple, Asus, Celkon, Comio, Coolpad, Gionee, Infocus, Intex, ITEL, Karbonn, Lava, Lenovo, LG, LYF, Micromax, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Panasonic, Samsung, Spice, Vivo, Xiaomi and others to offer attractive value proposition for customers.

India has around 530 million feature-phone users who have hitherto been left out of the Jio’s digital revolution initiative. In order to extend the Digital Life to vast proportions of Indians, Jio has partnered with Reliance Retail Ltd (“RRL”) to reinvent the conventional feature phone and introduced “India ka Intelligent SmartPhone” - JioPhone on 21st July 2017.

This phone has been made in India, by young Indians and for all Indians. Initial feedback and data usage behaviour of users in this segment is very encouraging. Jio is committed to make JioPhone available for entire Indian wireless market in coming months and ensure Jio Digital Life with superior connectivity, rich content and entertainment is experienced by all Indians. RRL is geared to increase capacity of supply of JioPhone, considering the tremendous anticipated response from Indians to embrace Digital Life.

Jio users consumed 178 crore hours of high speed video per month making Jio the world’s largest mobile video network also. Before Jio’s launch, India was ranked 155th in the world in terms of mobile broadband penetration as per rankings done by International Telecommunication Union. India is now the top ranked country in mobile data consumption.

Jio has consistently been rated India’s fastest network as per the TRAI’s MySpeed application. The trend as indicated by TRAI shows that Jio’s customers have consistently received better speeds than others. As per the most recent results on TRAI’s MySpeed application, the average download speed on Jio network was at 18.53 Mbps, almost twice of the network speed available on any other network.

The company  users made 267 crore minutes of VoLTE calls per day during the quarter. This quantum of traffic has been achieved by Jio in less than 12 months since commencement of operations. This has been achieved by enabling users to make unlimited voice calls from anywhere to anywhere in India at absolutely free tariff and by abolishing roaming practice within India – first such move by an Indian telecom operator. In terms of quality also, Jio achieved industry best call drop rates on consistent basis.

The Company continues to make progress for delivering Enterprise solutions, FTTH and IOT with beta trials initiated in a few locations. These services are being offered using the same integrated network and platforms.