This contrasts with the stance of rival operators Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, which have repeatedly highlighted the need for tariff adjustments to improve return on investment. In particular, Airtel argued that India’s telecom tariffs remain among the lowest globally and that there is scope for higher Arpa also through a differentiated pricing structure compared to a “one size fits all” pricing model.
“We are quite happy with the traction – 1% (quarterly) growth in Arp. It has grown almost 5-5.5% over the last year. We have some tools to improve Arp while driving more value for customers and we will continue to focus on that,” Anshuman Thakur, head of strategy at Reliance Jio, said on Friday’s earnings call.
“Organically, if we can improve our Arpa by 5-6% per annum. I think it’s a good number, a good place to participate and add many more customers at the same time,” Thakur said, adding that the telecom operator is seeing a big increase in 5G data consumption on its network.
In the December quarter, Jio’s monthly Arpu rose 110 basis points, or 1.1% sequentially, to ₹213.7 from ₹211.4 at the end of September. Without the tariff increase, the operator’s Arpu growth has been gradually increasing by about 1% over the past year, which has somewhat limited the operator’s growth as there are 5G promotional offers.
When it comes to Arpa, Airtel currently leads ₹256 per month towards the end of September. Arpu from Vodafone Idea was ₹167. Both have yet to report their earnings for the December quarter.
Brokerage house Citi said in a January 5 note that it expects the next tariff hike to be “around the listing of Jio, which is planned for the first half of this year”. Citi pushed back its expectations from December 2025 to June 2026.
Jio Platforms, which will file its proposal for listing on the stock exchanges, is based in the telecom and digital services arm of Reliance Industries. Reliance Jio Infocomm is a subsidiary of Jio Platforms, which accounts for most of its business.
When telecom operators last hiked tariffs in July 2024, after a delay of more than two years, Reliance Jio took the lead with a 12-25% hike. But while Airtel and Vodafone Idea have been vocal about the need to hike tariffs to boost return on capital employed (RoCE, a measure of profitability and efficiency), Jio has refrained from talking openly about tariff hikes.
Along with the July 2024 tariff hike, both Jio and Bharti have increased the data offered under their minimum recharge plans that subscribers need to take advantage of 5G (to 2GB/day from 1.5GB earlier). They phased out their entry-level packages last year.
According to Citi, the July 2024 tariff hike initiated by Jio (the previous two were initiated by Airtel) indicates a shift in the market leader’s stance, with monetization now a clear priority, improving the visibility of future tariff hikes.
“Organically, if we can improve our Arpa by 5-6% per annum. I think it’s a good number, a good place to participate and add many more customers at the same time,” Thakur said, adding that the telecom operator is seeing a big increase in 5G data consumption on its network.
In the December quarter, Jio’s monthly Arpu rose 110 basis points, or 1.1% sequentially, to ₹213.7 from ₹211.4 at the end of September. Without the tariff increase, the operator’s Arpu growth has been gradually increasing by about 1% over the past year, which has somewhat limited the operator’s growth as there are 5G promotional offers.
When it comes to Arpa, Airtel currently leads ₹256 per month towards the end of September. Arpu from Vodafone Idea was ₹167. Both have yet to report their earnings for the December quarter.
Brokerage house Citi said in a January 5 note that it expects the next tariff hike to be “around the listing of Jio, which is planned for the first half of this year”. Citi pushed back its expectations from December 2025 to June 2026.
Jio Platforms, which will file its proposal for listing on the stock exchanges, is based in the telecom and digital services arm of Reliance Industries. Reliance Jio Infocomm is a subsidiary of Jio Platforms, which accounts for most of its business.
When telecom operators last hiked tariffs in July 2024, after a delay of more than two years, Reliance Jio took the lead with a 12-25% hike. But while Airtel and Vodafone Idea have been vocal about the need to hike tariffs to boost return on capital employed (RoCE, a measure of profitability and efficiency), Jio has refrained from talking openly about tariff hikes.
Along with the July 2024 tariff hike, both Jio and Bharti have increased the data offered under their minimum recharge plans that subscribers need to take advantage of 5G (to 2GB/day from 1.5GB earlier). They phased out their entry-level packages last year.
According to Citi, the July 2024 tariff hike initiated by Jio (the previous two were initiated by Airtel) indicates a shift in the market leader’s stance, with monetization now a clear priority, improving the visibility of future tariff hikes.
“Jio seems to be cautious about tariff hikes due to the upcoming IPO (initial public offering) at the moment. I believe a post-IPO tariff hike would give them more substantial gains on the stock price,” said Faisal Kawoosa, principal analyst at Techarc, a technology market research firm. “However, the telco could follow suit if other operators take the lead in raising tariffs during this time.”
According to Kawoosa, due to the premium nature of the smartphone market, there is also a need for a tiered pricing structure in the telecom sector. “There needs to be subsidized pricing for the lower tiers and premium pricing for the higher tiers. This would keep the basic level of consumption affordable for everyone while boosting Arpa for telecom operators from premium priced plans,” he said.
During the December quarter, Jio’s per capita data usage was 40.7GB per month with overall data traffic growth of 34% year-on-year. Total data traffic on the company’s network grew to 62.3 billion GB, compared to 58.4 billion GB in the previous quarter and 46.5 billion GB a year earlier.
Citing a recent third-party study, Thakur said that when consumers are on Jio’s 5G network, 99% of the time, they are actually using 5G, while on any other network, they are using 5G less than 50% of the time.
During an analyst call, the company did not give a timeline for listing Jio Platforms, which resides in the telecom and digital services arm of Reliance Industries Ltd. “We are waiting for a new announcement from the government to see what the final details will be. We are working on the assumption that it is in line with what Sebi (Securities and Exchange Board of India) has recommended. But we will have to wait for that before finalizing it,” Thakur said.
For companies with the above post-issue market capitalization ₹5 trillion, the regulator has proposed to allow them to dilute 2.5% equity capital at the time of listing, against the existing norm of 5% minimum public offering. The 2.5% dilution rule allows these large firms to list without flooding the market while still meeting public shareholding norms, making mega-IPOs manageable and investor-friendly.
While telecom contributes a large chunk of revenue, Jio’s digital offline services are increasingly important. This segment includes managed technology services, cloud, delivered content and devices.
The company recently partnered with Google to offer its users the Gemini Pro plan for free. “Increased adoption of digital services such as cloud and AI services creates opportunities for differentiation in the near term (eg Jio bundling Google AI Pro) and a possible monetization opportunity in the medium term,” brokerage BNP Paribas said in a January 12 note.
Thakur said Jio is in a very good position and can choose the services it wants to offer, which could come from Reliance Intelligence or any other partner or service provider.
In August last year, Reliance Industries Chairman and CEO Mukesh Ambani launched Reliance Intelligence, the company’s artificial intelligence arm, and announced an expanded partnership with shareholders Google and Meta Platforms for AI applications and services.
“Jio is now in a unique position where there is no cost for Jio. It brings products to market,” Thakur said. “Jio can optimize access, reach, customer knowledge and actually these are now revenue generating opportunities for Jio. So Jio is actually making money from these things.”
As for the capital expenditure on data centers and GPUs (Graphics Processing Units), Thakur said that these expenses will be incurred by Reliance or Reliance Intelligence and will not be directly borne by Jio. The company can access these assets through long-term leases to offer services like Jio Cloud or Sovereign Cloud to customers.
Home broadband push
Jio is increasingly focusing on home broadband. According to the company, the total number of fixed broadband connected premises increased to 25.3 million during the quarter under review. JioAirFiber continued to accelerate its subscriber addition rate with a base of over 11.5 million as of December 2025.
Jio has set a target of 100 million home broadband customers with no specific timeline.
The company is also focused on improving cost efficiency in home broadband through its fixed wireless access (FWA) offering. Unlike fiber, which requires a dedicated line for each home, FWA uses unlicensed band radio (UBR) technology to deploy a single receiver that can serve multiple homes, reducing subscriber costs.
