Jio Platforms announced its financial results for the October-December quarter on Friday. The company, which is preparing for an initial public offering, showed steady growth during this period. This performance continues a pattern of consistent gains seen in recent quarters.
Financial Performance Highlights
The company reported a net profit of ₹7,629 crore for the third quarter of fiscal year 2026. This represents a solid increase of 3.4% compared to the previous quarter. When looking at year-on-year growth, the profit jumped by an impressive 11.2%.
Revenue from operations reached ₹37,262 crore during the same period. This figure shows a quarter-on-quarter growth of 2.5%. More significantly, it demonstrates a strong year-on-year increase of 12.7%. These numbers generally matched what market analysts had anticipated.
Drivers of Growth
Several factors contributed to this positive performance. The company added a substantial number of new subscribers during the quarter. Additionally, growth in home broadband services played a crucial role. Perhaps most importantly, Jio successfully shifted more customers toward higher-value plans and services.
Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, commented on the results. He stated that Jio expanded its subscriber base through attractive offerings. These propositions were enabled by the company's comprehensive technology stack specifically designed for Indian markets.
IPO Significance and Future Plans
The steady performance holds particular importance as Jio Platforms plans to list on stock exchanges by mid-2026. A higher average revenue per user and improved profitability would make the company more appealing to potential investors. These factors would also support a stronger valuation for the upcoming IPO.
Operational Metrics
The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization showed significant improvement. EBITDA rose to ₹19,303 crore in the December quarter. This represents a 16.4% increase compared to the same period last year. Sequentially, it grew by 2.9% from the previous quarter.
Jio's EBITDA margin expanded by 170 basis points year-on-year. The company attributed this 16.4% EBITDA growth to higher revenue and improved margins across operations.
Telecom Business Performance
The telecom vertical, operating under Reliance Jio Infocomm, continued to show positive trends. Average revenue per user increased during the quarter, reaching ₹213.7. This represents a sequential growth of 1.1% from ₹211.4 at the end of September.
Higher data consumption drove this ARPU improvement. Additionally, a favorable subscriber mix contributed as more users migrated from 2G to 4G and 5G networks. Many customers also upgraded to higher data tiers during this period.
Subscriber Growth and Market Position
Reliance Jio added 8.9 million net subscribers during the December quarter. This brought its total subscriber base to 515.3 million. In the preceding quarter, the company had added 8.3 million subscribers.
The company announced that Jio AirFiber achieved a significant milestone. It became the first fixed wireless access service globally to surpass 10 million subscribers.
Industry Context and Analyst Views
Analysts had expected largely uneventful results given the absence of tariff hikes. The stable growth aligned with these expectations. In comparison, Bharti Airtel reported an ARPU of ₹256 at the end of September. Airtel has not yet declared its earnings for the December quarter.
Brokerage house BNP Paribas shared insights in a note dated January 12. They observed that Indian telecom operators typically raise tariffs by 15-20% every two years. The brokerage expects the next tariff hike to occur around June or July 2026. Previous meaningful tariff increases happened in July 2024, November 2021, and November 2019.
Promotional 5G offers and the lack of tariff hikes continue to moderate ARPU growth. However, the company's comprehensive approach to subscriber acquisition and service expansion appears to be delivering consistent results as it moves toward its public listing.
