Jio Platforms Q2 profit rises 13% on premium push, broadband demand ahead of IPO

IPO-bound Jio Platforms on Friday reported a steady growth in the July–September quarter, powered by a growing user base, strong demand for home broadband, and a shift toward higher-value customers.

Jio Platforms, which houses Reliance Industries Ltd’s telecom and digital services business, reported a 3.7% sequential and 12.8% YoY (year-on-year) growth in net profit to ₹7,375 crore during the quarter.

The company’s revenue from operations rose 3.71% QoQ (quarter-on-quarter) and 14.6% YoY to ₹36,332 crore, beating the street estimates. Jio said the revenue growth was led by subscriber market share gains across mobility and homes, improvement in average revenue per user (Arpu) and continued growth in its digital services business.

In the June quarter, the company's revenue from operations grew 3.07% sequentially and 19% YoY to ₹35,032 crore. The company clocked a net profit of ₹7,110 crore in the preceding quarter, with a 1.2% QoQ and 25% YoY growth.

“Jio’s innovative radio solutions and ubiquitous stand-alone 5G network have enabled it to provide broadband connectivity to households across India. We continue to augment our capabilities with pioneering systems and platforms, ensuring the benefits of ever-evolving technology landscape for all Indians,” said Mukesh D. Ambani, chairman and managing director, Reliance Industries Limited

IPO momentum building

Jio’s continued strong performance assumes significance ahead of its planned listing on the stock exchanges by the first half of 2026. A higher ARPU and improved profitability would make it a more attractive proposition for investors and support a stronger valuation at the time of the IPO.

The company’s mainstay telecom vertical, housed under Reliance Jio Infocomm, continues to see upside in its average revenue per user (Arpu) during the quarter, driven by higher data consumption and a limited tariff intervention during the quarter like removal of the 1 GB base plan from online recharge portals.

Reliance Jio Infocomm is India’s largest telecom operator by market share and a subsidiary of Jio Platforms, accounting for most of its business. Reliance Jio Infocomm's revenue from operations on a standalone basis grew 12.4% year-on-year and 3.15% quarter-on-quarter to ₹31,857 crore. Net profit rose 11.9% on-year and 3.9% sequentially to ₹6,972 crore.

Margin and profitability trend

Jio’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (Ebitda) rose 17.7% on-year and 3.4% sequentially to ₹18,757 crore in the September quarter. Ebitda margin rose 140 basis points on-year and contracted marginally sequentially to 51.6%. The company said Ebitda posted strong double-digit growth driven by revenue growth and healthy margin improvement YOY.

Analysts say ahead of the IPO, the company would look to increase its profitability and return on capital employed through another round of tariff hikes.

At the end of September, Jio had 234 million 5G subscribers, up from 213 million in the preceding June quarter. 5G now accounts for 50% of Jio's total wireless traffic, driven by a consistent increase in customer engagement, the company said.

Monthly Arpu rose 1.2% sequentially to ₹211.4 from ₹208.8 at the end of June. In an earnings release, the company said Arpu rose with increased customer engagement, but it was impacted for the time being by the promotional 5G offers.

“There has been nothing new from 5G for consumers, it is still a plain data service and therefore monetisation issues are there. Companies such as Jio are right now aggressively trying to acquire subscribers for home broadband and that might limit the upside to profitability and margins,” said Faisal Kawoosa, chief analyst at Techarc.

Recently, Jio also removed the entry-level 1 GB plan from its online recharge. Analysts such as brokerage Macquarie saw that as a way for the company to close the gap with Bharti Airtel, with a focus on premiumization.

Bharti Airtel is yet to declare its September quarter earnings. The telecom operator, however, is leading the industry with an Arpu of ₹250 as of June end.

Reliance Jio net added 8.3 million subscribers during the September quarter, taking its subscriber base to 506.4 million. In the preceding quarter, the company had added 9.9 million subscribers.

During the quarter, the monthly churn for Jio subscribers was stable at 1.9%.

Jio has been trying to bring 200 million subscribers to 4G in a bid to improve its Arpu. "We are still trying to penetrate, convert almost 215 million 2G users and upgrade them (to 4G). So, working on bringing more devices that are more suitable and affordable for them," said Anshuman Thakur, head of strategy at Reliance Jio Infocomm, during the earnings call with analysts.

Jio added over 1 million new homes each month during the quarter, taking the total connected premises to 23 million with fixed broadband. The company said its JioAirFiber extended global leadership with a subscriber base of 9.5 million.

“Jio will continue to bring new-age technologies and enhance the life of every Indian citizen. Jio has successfully delivered its indigenous technology stack at India scale and is now set to take our homegrown technology around the world,” said Akash M Ambani, chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm.

During the quarter, data traffic on Jio’s network grew 6.8% sequentially and 29.8% YoY to 58.4 billion GB. Per capita data consumption was 38.7 GB per month on the company’s network.

According to Jio’s investor presentation, the company is also seeing strong traction in its cloud gaming platform Jio Games, its cloud storage platform JioAICloud, and JioPC, its virtual desktop. The telecom operator is banking on its Jio PC, a service that converts televisions into AI-enabled computers, for its foray into digital products. It will also soon launch Jio Frame, a smart glass with a multilingual AI voice assistant and camera.

“The price points (for Jio Frame) are significantly below the global companies that are offering their products. Our price points are very suitable for the Indian demand,” said Thakur, adding that the company will launch its smart glasses in the market over the next few months.