Reliance Jio lost 10.9 million customers during Q2 FY25. But is this something Jio would be worried about? Not at all! The context behind numbers matters a lot. Thus, when you look at the bigger picture, it has only benefited Jio. Jio's overall subscriber base went down from 489.7 million to 478.8 million QoQ. This happened due to the tariff hikes implemented during July 2024. Some level of SIM consolidation is normal for operators that raise tariffs.
Read More - Jio ARPU Grows Significantly Aided by Tariff Hikes in Q2 FY25
However, while Jio's overall subscriber base shrunk, the telco's 5G subscriber base grew by 17 million during the quarter. Jio's 5G subscriber base grew from 130 million to 147 million. At the same time, its ARPU (average revenue per user) figure which was stuck at Rs 181.7 for consecutive quarters jumped to Rs 195.1 in a single quarter. This also boosted the telco's net profit to Rs 6,536 crore.
Even though Jio saw its overall subscriber base growing down QoQ, the subscriber base was actually up YoY by 4.2%. Reliance Jio said that it expects to see the full impact of the tariff hike in the next two to three quarters, which means, that this subscriber loss won't discourage the company at all. The telco is still deepening the reach of its 5G networks and that will actually help it in connecting more homes with its FWA (fixed-wireless access) service.
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Losing 10.9 million customers doesn't make Jio's business any smaller. In hindsight, the company's performance has only grown by improving the ARPU. Whether Jio adds or loses subscribers in the coming quarters will be interesting to track. Bharti Airtel's results are scheduled to be announced later this month and thus, it will be key to see how the tariff hike impacted Airtel's business in terms of ARPU (expected to grow), and the subscriber bsae (expected to decline).
