CLSA makes big claim, says Reliance Jio to have 400 mn subscribers

There is no stopping Reliance Jio in becoming the largest telecom arm in India, if what this report says comes true. The company since the start of its operations has looked to increase its subscriber base, which is why it continued to introduce cheap recharge packs providing unlimited calls, freebies and heavy data. This has stirred a tariff war in the country disrupting the entire telecom system by impacting earnings of Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone. RJio is already designated as the world’s largest mobile data consumption network and  largest VOLTE network. Guess what! Rating agency CLSA predicts that by end of March 2020, this Mukesh Ambani led company will have more than 400 million subscribers! This, as per the agency, would be a whopping 45% of India’s population between the ages of 14-80 years.  

CLSA says that, under “Reliance’s grand plan”, this may not be seen as mere telecom subs but as ready customers to get revenue/profit from other sources like ads, retail sales, services and content.

At its 41st AGM, the parent Reliance Industries highlighted average customer engagement with Jio stands at a very high 290 mins/day. 

This high level of engagement along with ~150m subs on JioPhone which houses the Reliance-controlled Kai-OS operating system, as per CLSA could clearly open ad opportunities.

Further, CLSA explains given a user base habituated to use over 10GB/month and rise in fixed-line subs, Jio’s content apps (live TV, movies, magazines, etc) may also soon be ripe for monetisation.

Additionally, CLSA adds, “Reliance will beef-up the ecommerce extension of its well-established organised retail business in coming months. This should allow it to take a bigger share of consumers’ wallet via its omni-channel grocery, fashion and digital retail offerings.”

Therefore, considering the above CLSA forecasts Jio’s subscriber base to rise above 400 mn by Mar’20. 

As on June 2018, the company has 215.3 million subscribers with ARPU of Rs 134.5 subscriber per month. Total wireless data traffic during the quarter of 642 crore GB, while total voice traffic is at 44,871 crore minutes.