Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio), an unlisted wireless subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), has posted a net loss of ₹270.59 crore for the second quarter that ended on September 30, bogged down by the free wireless minutes it offered.
In comparison, the company posted a net loss of ₹3.90 crore during the same quarter in the last financial year. This is the first time RJio has reported its earnings, since it started operations on September 5, 2016, by providing free wireless services. It company’s commercial services began from July 1 this year.
During the quarter under review, the firm controlled by Mukesh Ambani posted revenues of ₹6,147 crore, while it added 15.3 million net users during the quarter. RJio, which is the newest entrant into the telecom space, had a total subscriber base of 138.6 million as of September 30.
Anshuman Thakur, Head of Strategy and Planning at RJio, said: “Capital expenditure in Jio was about ₹7,000 crore in the September quarter and will be within the ballpark going forward. Our interconnect usage charges stood at about ₹2,000 crore for the quarter.
“For Jio users, some new tariff plans are around the corner,” Thakuar said, but declined to give details.
RJio recorded 178-crore hours of high-speed video consumption per month, and recorded customer churn at about 1 per cent per month. The churn is expected to reduce further, it said in a statement. The company’s total wireless data traffic stood at 378-crore GB during the quarter, while the average voice traffic was at 267-crore minutes per day.