Reliance Jio Infocomm’s fiscal first quarter net profit nearly tripled to Rs 2,520 crore as compared to Rs 891 crore in the corresponding quarter previous year, the company said in a statement. The four-year-old telecom arm of Reliance Industries added nearly 1 crore new subscribers during the quarter despite the challenges due to coronavirus pandemic. The company now has a total customer base of nearly 39 crore as of 30th June 2020.“Jio started with a vision of connecting everything by building a robust and secure wireless and digital network and extending the benefits of digital connectivity to everyone in India. Thirteen investors, which include the largest technology companies and investors globally, now share a common vision with us,” RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani said in a statement.
Telecom industry has been one of the exceptional segments during coronavirus pandemic. While other sectors were struggling to stay afloat, customer engagement increased for telecom industry with national lockdown in place. “Average wireless data consumption per user per month increased to 12.1 GB and average voice consumption to 756 minutes per user per month,” the company said. The company also launched JioMeet platform amid a rise in video-conferencing culture and also announced partnership with Google, which will make Android-based phone for the company.
Reliance Jio has been an investor magnet of late with RIL’s telecom arm having secured Rs 152,055 crore to date from foreign investors. Global companies including Facebook, Google, Vista etc have so far picked nearly 33% stake in Mukesh Ambani’s four-year-old telecom company, helping Reliance Industries become net-debt free much before the target. Out of the total Rs 152,055 crore, Rs 22,981 crore will be retained at Jio Platforms to drive future growth. Google and Facebook are the two biggest investors in Jio with them picking 7.73% and 9.99% stake respectively. Among Reliance Jio’s other investors are — Silver Lake, General Atlantic, KKR, Mubadala, ADIA, TPG, L Catterton, Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, Intel Capital and Qualcomm Ventures.
