Jio achieves 72.4 million subscribers

NEW DELHI: Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) said that its telecom subsidiary Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (Jio) has garnered 72.4 million subscribers within four months of commencement of services.

In November 2016, (RIL and GE signed a global partnership agreement in the Industrial IOT (IIOT) space whereby RIL and GE will work together to build out joint applications on GE’s Predix platform In December 2016, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL, a subsidiary of RIL), became the world’s fastest growing technology company crossing 50 million subscribers in a record 83 days. RJIL also announced the launch of ‘Jio Happy New Year Offer’

In December 2016, RIL commissioned the first phase of new Paraxylene project at Jamnagar Commenting on the results, Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Limited said: “Our robust integrated platform, sound operational processes and business portfolio aligned to the needs of emerging India enabled us to deliver another record performance in challenging market conditions. The refining business has delivered eight consecutive quarters of double-digit GRMs, benefiting from the global demand for transportation fuels and improved product cracks.

“We successfully commissioned the first phase of Paraxylene plant during the quarter, further deepening the linkage between our refining and petrochemicals operations. Our growth strategy focuses on creating sustainable returns for our shareholders through value-enhancing, high-return projects. We are executing well on our projects under construction and remain confident on delivering on our growth plans,” he added.

“I am also delighted by our country’s eagerness to adopt to a digital life as witnessed by the record-breaking launch of Jio. Its comprehensive ecosystem has enabled millions of Indians to lead a richer life through its offerings,” said Ambani.

DIGITAL SERVICES

Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (Jio), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited (“RIL”), has built a next generation all-IP data network with latest 4G LTE technology. It is the only network built as a Mobile Video Network and providing Voice over LTE technology. It has built a future ready network which can easily deploy 5G and beyond technology in the last leg. Jio has created an eco-system comprising network, devices, applications and content, service experience and affordable tariffs for everyone to live the Jio Digital Life.

Since its commencement of services on 5th September 2016, Jio has become the fastest growing technology company in the world. It crossed 50 million subscribers in just 83 days, adding at an average rate of 6 lakh subscribers per day. This subscriber addition rate is the fastest achieved by any company in the world including the likes of Facebook, WhatsApp and Skype. Jio continues its rapid ramp up of subscriber base and as of 31st December 2016, in less than 4 months from commencement of services, there were 72.4 million subscribers on the network.

This level of growth has been unprecedented on any mobile network anywhere in the world, and is a testimony to the comprehensive digital ecosystem that Jio has created and its promise of enabling millions of Indians to add value to their daily lives. Jio continues to transform the industry paradigm by revolutionising the customer journey from on-boarding to usage by offering services and applications which have substantially enhanced customer experience.

During the quarter, Jio announced the launch of the ‘Jio Happy New Year Offer (JNO)’ effective from 4th December 2016. Under the JNO, all the Jio subscribers are entitled to certain special benefits, which comprise of Jio’s Data, Voice, Video and the full bouquet of Jio applications and content, absolutely free, up to 31st March 2017. During this offer period, Jio and Jio customers, will be able to continue the journey of co-creating and building the best network experience together. The benefits will be available to all subscribers signing up for Jio services up to 3rd March 2017. Jio is a customer obsessed organisation. Jio has ramped up the scale of its customer oriented initiatives such as eKYC platform (over 3 lakh outlets), home delivery services (across 600 cities), digital recharge and billing experience etc.

In order to offer completely flawless and world-class user experience to customers, Jio has continued to expand its network, both in terms of coverage as well as capacity. Jio has the widest and most extensive 4G network in India which is being expanded to cover over 90% of population shortly. Jio is the only operator in India to deploy pan-India LTE on a sub-GHz band, in addition to pan-India 1800MHz and 2300MHz spectrum band. According to speed test results available on TRAI MySpeed portal, average download speed on the Jio network at 18.17 Mbps in December 2016 was twice that of any other operator.

Jio continues to face interconnection congestion issues with some of the large operators on account of inadequate provision of points of interconnection (POI) capacities even months after commencement of services by Jio. The POI capacity provided by these operators is still way below requirement and is falling short of the customer addition pace of Jio, resulting in quality of service issues for Indian customers. The resultant call failure rates continue to be of the order of 175 calls failing out of every 1,000 calls from Jio to Airtel network when the QoS regulations mandate that no more than 5 calls out of every 1,000 calls can fail. Indian customers are still being denied the benefits of superior voice technology on Jio’s state-of-the-art network.

During the quarter, Jio announced a scheme for iPhone users wherein all new iPhone users on Jio’s network would receive one year of complimentary Jio Digital Services as well as convenient and personalised Jio SIM activation experience at doorstep. Jio also announced a strategic partnership with Niantic under which it brought the sought after, first-of-its-kind, Augmented Reality game ‘Pokémon GO’ to India. ‘Pokémon GO’ is the global leading app in the gaming category.

In view of the unprecedented customer response to Jio’s services as well as to address the anticipated growth in demand for digital services, additional investments are proposed to be made into the network to enhance its coverage and capacity. These investments are proposed to be financed largely through an equity offering, to strengthen Jio’s balance sheet for growth.

Accordingly, the Board of Directors of the Company has decided to make a rights issue of 6 billion – 9% Non- Cumulative Optionally Convertible Preference Shares (‘OCPS’) of ` 10  each for cash, at a premium of `. 40 per OCPS, aggregating to ` 30,000 crore.