Will Jio raise tariffs? Here’s what Akash Ambani said ahead of IPO rollout
Jio Platforms has the option of increasing mobile tariffs but plans to drive revenue growth primarily by offering customers more services rather than relying on higher data prices, Managing Director Akash Ambani said on Thursday, October 15, ahead of the company’s initial public offering (IPO).
“We always have the ability to take up prices,” Ambani said at a press conference in Mumbai. However, he indicated that Jio would prefer to increase revenue by expanding its range of services and charging customers for additional offerings instead of making higher prices per gigabyte its primary growth lever.
Ambani did not provide a timeline for a possible tariff increase when asked whether the company planned to raise prices.
He also pointed out that telecom spending per user as a share of India’s per-capita income had roughly halved to around 1% since Jio entered the market in 2016, suggesting there was room for the industry to generate more revenue from customers.
Jio Chief Executive Pankaj Pawar said tariffs were only one of several levers available to the company to drive growth.
Jio charges ₹4.9 per GB, below industry average
Ambani said Jio charges approximately ₹4.9 per gigabyte of data, compared with an industry average of ₹7.5. Its customers consume an average of 43.7 GB of data a month.
The company has built a large customer base through affordable data plans since its launch in 2016. It now carries more than 60% of India’s wireless data traffic, Ambani said.
Reliance Jio Infocomm, Jio Platforms’ telecom subsidiary, had 533.3 million customers at the end of June, including 284.9 million 5G users, Ambani said. Its average revenue per user (ARPU), a key measure of how much revenue a telecom operator generates from each customer, stood at ₹215.6 a month.
More services to drive revenue growth
Jio plans to expand beyond mobile connectivity by focusing on home broadband, enterprise digital services and international opportunities.
Ambani said the company expects India’s digital economy to reach $1.4 trillion by FY31 and aims to capture a substantial share of that market.
New offerings outside its licensed telecom business could also support profitability. These include a voice-based artificial intelligence feature announced at Reliance Industries’ annual general meeting.
Ambani also identified home broadband as a major growth opportunity. Jio had 28.6 million fixed broadband customers and accounted for 67.5% of India’s net additions in fixed broadband customers in FY26.
Jio IPO opens on October 21
Jio Platforms prepares for an IPO that could become India’s largest share sale.
The company has set a price band of ₹1,065-1,119 per share, with the issue scheduled to open on October 21 and close on October 23. At the upper end of the price band, the offering is expected to raise approximately ₹30,213 crore, implying a valuation of about ₹10.3 lakh crore.
The shares are expected to begin trading on October 28.
