Reliance Jio, which claims to be the world's largest data company, has higher ARPUs in the smartphone segment while its tariffs tend to be 7–10 percent lower compared to the competition, i.e., the number two player [Airtel], according to the company's senior executive, who urges a like-to-like comparison in an interaction with an analyst during the recent earnings call.
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ARPU Comparison Methodology
On the ARPU differential, Jio argues that the comparison is misleading due to differences in calculation methodologies. Specifically, Jio uses the TRAI-reported overall subscriber base as the denominator, which includes a wider set of users.
Jio Explains the Denominator Discrepancy
"I think I would urge all of you to look at the way ARPUs are getting computed. So this 15 percent ARPU gap, when you say, if you just break that up into the reporting basis, so look at the denominator in our case, which is the overall subscriber base, the TRAI reported subscriber base and look at the denominator in the case of the nearest rival, which is not that base, which is a different base. So you are no longer comparing like to like," said Anshuman Thakur, Head of Strategy, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited.
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Analyst Questions Jio's ARPU Gap Despite Tariff Hike
Thakur was responding to an analyst's question: "Jio led the tariff hike. And despite this quarter's ARPU actually coming ahead of expectation, why do you think the ARPU is still 15 percent lower than the number two operator?"
Free Data Consumption Trends are Proof of Success
Thakur pointed to Jio's very good success in 5G deployment and emphasised that the proof of the pudding lies in the data consumption trends, where the company continues to expand the gap between itself and other operators. "The fixed wireless numbers you have seen the TRAI data coming. Why the tariff increase?
Competitors Maybe Including Enterprise Revenues
Moreover, Jio suggests that competing operators may be including enterprise revenues within their ARPU figures, further distorting the comparison. These adjustments, Jio claims, could amount to Rs 1,100–1,200 crore per month or quarter, thus making a direct ARPU comparison misleading.
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Inter-Segmental Adjustments
"We come across inter-segmental kind of adjustments, and those are massive numbers. So it is really, again, once again not comparable, because you are not looking at what is coming out of mobility revenue versus a whole bunch of enterprise revenues getting intermingled and those numbers could be of the order of Rs 11 to Rs 1200 crore every month or quarter. So we are not comparing like to like," Thakur added.
Jio Claims Higher ARPU Among Smartphone Users
Jio also asserts that if one were to do a like-for-like comparison—particularly focusing on smartphone users—its ARPU is actually slightly higher than competitors', despite having tariffs that are 7–10 percent lower. This implies that Jio's customers are opting for higher-tier plans and consuming more data, which lifts the effective ARPU, according to the executive.
"Our assessment tells us that on the smartphone side, where our tariffs tend to be 7-10 percent lower, we still have ARPUs which are slightly higher. If you do a strict like-to-like comparison—I will let you people do it... but our assessment is we are slightly higher or a little bit higher, despite the fact that our tariffs are lesser. And therefore, the flow-through of impact or any of that—I think we are fairly confident that we are doing quite well," Thakur said.
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Data Usage and Premium Plan Adoption by Users
The company sees this as evidence of strong customer engagement and premium plan adoption, even if the headline ARPU number appears lower.
"Our customers are using a lot of data. The higher ARPU, despite our tariff plans being lesser, kind of indicate our customers are picking up the higher plans and their premiums are more," Thakur added.
Analyst Questions Slowing Market Share Gains
One analyst questioned: "Jio had a phenomenal 5G ramp-up, but despite this phenomenal performance in 5G, the market share gains have sort of come off?"
Jio Defends Market Share Trends with Data Metrics
In response, Jio pushes back, emphasising that market share gains are happening—just not solely in terms of subscriber count. Instead, they are evident in data consumption metrics, where Jio continues to widen its lead. The company argues that this is a more accurate indicator of user engagement and future growth. Jio draws a parallel with its 2016 strategy, pointing out that strong network capacity and service quality tend to translate into customer growth over time.
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Network Quality as the Foundation for Growth
"The other bit around why the market shares have not increased, they are increasing. They are increasing when you look at data consumption, Thakur said, adding, "They are increasing when you look at actual customer traction on the network. And look again, I will take you back to 2016. Finally, when the network can provide better service, better quality of service, can carry more load that will translate into more customers coming and enjoying superior services, and we do expect that to happen."
5G Capacity Leadership Expected to Drive Future Gains
With its 5G infrastructure now significantly ahead of competitors, Jio expects that this advantage in capacity will continue to boost data consumption market share, which will eventually reflect in customer and revenue market share as well.
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Capacity Advantage Set to Translate into Market Share
"The fact that we have deployed 5G capacity, which is significantly ahead of the competitors, we believe the capacity market share will translate into data consumption market share, which is something that is already happening and which will then translate into customer market share and revenue market share, which also we are seeing already beginning to happen and will only pick up as the time goes by," Thakur said.
References:
- Airtel ARPU as of Q3FY25: Rs 245
- Jio ARPU as of Q4FY25 : Rs 206
- Vi ARPU as of Q3FY25: Rs 163
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