Reliance Jio Q1 net profit rises 24% to Rs 4,335 cr as tariff hikes boost realisations

India's largest telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm on Friday reported a nearly 24 per cent rise in its June quarter net profit to Rs 4,335 crore as tariff hike boosted revenues.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio clocked revenue from operations of Rs 21,873 crore in the just-ended quarter, which was 21.5 per cent higher than the year-ago period, according to a filing.

Jio's Q1 performance was bolstered by tariff hikes of December 2021, and the number of active users on its network too has been improving.

The standalone net profit for the June quarter was up 23.8 per cent at Rs 4,335 crore against Rs 3,501 crore in the year-ago period. Seen sequentially, the net profit was almost four per cent higher than Rs 4,173 crore logged in the March 2022 quarter.

It is pertinent to mention here that Jio's ARPU or Average Revenue Per User - a key monitorable metric for all telcos - increased during the March quarter to Rs 167.6 per subscriber per month.

Jio's operating profit margin for the just-concluded June quarter stood at 26.2 per cent, slightly higher than the corresponding quarter last year.

The net profit margin for the June 2022 quarter came in at 16.9 per cent, which was up 40 bps (basis points) from the same period last year.

Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea - the other two private telcos in the market - are yet to announce their Q1 FY23 results.

Jio's Q1 scorecard came at a time when the Indian telecom market is poised for the advent of 5G services that will usher in ultra-high speeds (about 10 times faster than 4G) and bring new-age services and business models.

The countdown to 5G spectrum auctions has begun, and a total of 72 GHz (gigahertz) of radiowaves worth at least Rs 4.3 lakh crore will be put on the block during the upcoming auction, scheduled to begin on Tuesday, July 26.

Besides Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and a unit of billionaire Gautam Adani's flagship Adani Enterprise Ltd are set to participate in the auction of the 5G spectrum.

($1 = 79.8970 Indian rupees)