15 October,2026 06:14 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL) Chairman Akash Ambani speaks during the Jio Platforms IPO press conference, in Mumbai, on Thursday. PIC/PTI
Jio Platforms plans to increase revenue per customer primarily by offering more services rather than raising tariffs, although it retains the option of increasing prices, Managing Director Akash Ambani said on Thursday, ahead of the company's initial public offering (IPO), which is set to be India's largest.
"We always have the ability to take up prices," Ambani told a press conference in Mumbai, adding that the company would prefer to offer customers more services and charge for them rather than rely primarily on increasing the price per gigabyte of data.
Asked whether a tariff hike was imminent, Ambani did not give a timeline. He said telecom spending per user as a share of India's per-capita income had roughly halved to about 1 per cent since Jio entered the market in 2016, indicating scope for further growth in spending.
Jio Chief Executive Pankaj Pawar said tariffs were only one of several levers available to increase revenue.
Ambani said Jio charges about Rs 4.9 per gigabyte of data, compared with an industry average of Rs 7.5, while its customers consume an average of 43.7 GB a month. The company also carries more than 60 per cent of India's wireless data traffic, he said.
"We expect a USD 1.4-trillion digital economy by FY31; we will take a huge market share of this," Ambani said, identifying mobile services, home broadband, and enterprise and international services as the company's main growth areas.
Ambani outlined a strategy centred on connectivity, technology and infrastructure, with the company seeking to expand beyond its core mobile business through broadband, enterprise offerings and services in overseas markets.
Home broadband was identified as a key growth area. Jio had 28.6 million fixed broadband customers and accounted for 67.5 per cent of India's net fixed broadband additions in fiscal 2026, Ambani said.
The company is also looking to benefit from industry-wide additions of about 340 million 4G and 5G customers between fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2031. Such growth could create opportunities to increase average revenue per user (ARPU), a measure of telecom operators' revenue-generating capacity.
In enterprise services, Jio is targeting an estimated Rs 5.1 trillion addressable market for digital services in India in fiscal 2026. It is also looking to monetise its in-house technology platform in selected overseas markets.
Ambani said Jio would offer its network technology to foreign telecom operators as a managed-service partner rather than sell hardware or software licences. He added that the expansion would not require heavy capital spending.
The company's international revenue contribution would become clearer "as we sign on our first customers", he said.
However, Jio Platforms remains heavily dependent on India. According to its prospectus, the country accounted for 96.62 per cent of its revenue in the year ended March 2026. The document did not provide figures for overseas sales.
Ambani also referred to the growth in India's digital connectivity since Jio's launch in 2016, when average download speeds were about 2.5 Mbps. National average download speeds have since risen to around 68 Mbps, he said.
Jio's average 5G download speed stood at 198.9 Mbps, roughly twice that of competing operators over the preceding three years, according to the company. Ambani also cited the decline in data prices since Jio entered the market.
The company has introduced services beyond its licensed telecom business, including a voice-based artificial intelligence feature announced at Reliance Industries' annual meeting. Ambani said such offerings could help increase its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) margin.
Jio Platforms' EBITDA margin stood at 53.3 per cent in the April-June quarter of FY27, compared with about 50 per cent three years earlier. Its EBITDA was Rs 76,225 crore in FY26, with a compound annual growth rate of 17.8 per cent between FY24 and FY26, according to the company.
Jio Platforms has set a price band of Rs 1,065 to Rs 1,119 per share for its IPO, which will comprise up to 27 crore new shares, equivalent to about 3 per cent of its existing capital. The issue does not include an offer-for-sale component.
At the upper end of the price band, the issue would raise about Rs 30,213 crore, surpassing Hyundai Motor India's Rs 27,870 crore share sale in October 2024 to become India's largest IPO.
The price band implies a market valuation of about Rs 10.3 lakh crore, below the roughly Rs 11 lakh crore valuation the company had earlier been reported to be seeking.
Bidding for the issue will open on October 21 and close on October 23, while anchor investors can bid on October 19. The shares are expected to begin trading on October 28.
According to the red herring prospectus dated October 14, the proceeds will be used to prepay borrowings of Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom subsidiary, and for general corporate purposes.
Reliance Industries owns 66.43 per cent of Jio Platforms. Meta Platforms affiliate Jaadhu Holdings holds 9.98 per cent, while Google International owns 7.73 per cent.
Nineteen banks are managing the issue, including Kotak Mahindra Capital, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Citi.
Reliance Jio Infocomm had 533.3 million customers at the end of June, including 284.9 million 5G users. Ambani described this as the largest 5G customer base outside China.
Average revenue per user rose to Rs 215.6 a month, while average monthly data consumption per customer reached 43.7 GB in the first quarter of FY27.
The company's connectivity infrastructure comprised 3,60,537 towers and 26,800 MHz of spectrum, according to the details outlined by Ambani.
Jio's strategy combines its network infrastructure with an in-house technology platform that the company describes as an end-to-end technology stack. It plans to use these capabilities to expand its domestic service offerings and pursue opportunities in selected international markets.
The upcoming IPO will provide investors an opportunity to buy shares in Jio Platforms, whose business spans mobile connectivity, broadband and digital services. The company's ability to increase revenue per customer, expand enterprise and broadband services, and develop international operations will be among the factors shaping its growth beyond the core telecom business.
(With PTI inputs)
