India's Reliance Jio posts bigger Q1 profit on subscriber additions
India's Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom business of Reliance Industries, reported a bigger first-quarter profit on Friday, as it signed on more subscribers.
Jio, India's largest telecom carrier by subscriber count, said its net profit climbed 12% year-on-year to 54.45 billion rupees ($651 million) in the April-June quarter.
Its revenue from operations rose 10.1% to 264.78 billion rupees in the period.
Four analysts expected revenue in the range of 265 billion rupees to 356 billion rupees.
Jio will disclose its average revenue per user (ARPU), a key performance metric for telecom firms, and subscriber additions along with parent Reliance's results later in the day.
It likely added 8-9 million subscribers, on a net basis, in the quarter, according to four analysts, while its ARPU was 182-184 rupees, according to five analysts.
That compares with ARPU of 181.7 rupees in the preceding quarter -- higher than Vodafone Idea but lower than Bharti Airtel.
The three companies recently raised their tariffs for the first time in three years as they try to recoup the billions poured into 5G technology over the last two years. ($1 = 83.6400 Indian rupees)
