‘Services, Not Tariff Hikes, Will Drive Revenue Growth’: Akash Ambani Outlines Jio’s Strategy Ahead Of Record IPO | VIDEO

Mumbai, October 15, 2026: Jio Platforms plans to increase revenue per customer primarily by selling more services rather than raising tariffs, although it retains the option of increasing prices, Managing Director Akash Ambani said on Thursday, days before the Reliance Industries unit opens what is expected to be India’s largest initial public offering (IPO).

“We always have the ability to take up prices,” Ambani told a press conference in Mumbai. However, the company would prefer to offer customers more services and charge for them rather than rely on the price per gigabyte as its main revenue lever.

Asked whether a tariff increase was imminent, he gave no timeline. He said telecom spending per user as a share of India’s per capita income had roughly halved to about 1% since Jio’s launch in 2016, leaving room for growth.

Chief Executive Pankaj Pawar said tariffs were only one of several levers available to the company.

Ambani said Jio charges about Rs 4.9 per gigabyte, against an industry average of Rs 7.5, with customers using 43.7 GB a month.

“We expect a USD 1.4-trillion digital economy by FY31; we will take a huge market share of this,” Ambani said, identifying mobile, home broadband, and enterprise and international services as the company’s growth engines.

He added that Jio carries more than 60% of India’s wireless data traffic.

New Services To Drive Revenue Growth

New services outside Jio’s licensed telecom business, including a voice-AI feature announced at Reliance’s annual meeting, could push its EBITDA margin above the current level. The margin stood at 53.3% in April-June, up from about 50% three years ago, he said.

On overseas expansion, Ambani said Jio would offer its in-house network technology to foreign operators as a managed-service partner rather than sell hardware or software licences. The model would not require heavy capital spending.

He said the split between domestic and international revenue would become clear “as we sign on our first customers”.

India accounted for 96.62% of Jio Platforms’ revenue in the year ended March 2026, according to the company’s prospectus, which does not provide figures for overseas sales.

IPO To Raise Up To Rs 30,213 Crore

Jio Platforms has set a price band of Rs 1,065 to Rs 1,119 per share for its offer of up to 27 crore new shares, representing about 3% of its existing capital. The IPO has no offer-for-sale component.

At the upper end of the price band, the issue would raise about Rs 30,213 crore, surpassing Hyundai Motor India’s Rs 27,870-crore share sale in October 2024, currently the country’s largest.

The price band implies a market valuation of about Rs 10.3 lakh crore, below the roughly Rs 11 lakh crore the company had earlier been reported to be seeking.

Bidding will run from October 21 to 23, with anchor investors bidding on October 19. The shares are expected to begin trading on October 28.

According to the red herring prospectus dated October 14, the proceeds will be used to prepay borrowings of Reliance Jio Infocomm, the telecom subsidiary, and for general corporate purposes.

Reliance Industries owns 66.43% of Jio Platforms. Meta Platforms affiliate Jaadhu Holdings holds 9.98%, while Google International owns 7.73%. Nineteen banks, including Kotak Mahindra Capital, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Citi, are managing the offer.

Jio Serves 533.3 Million Customers

Reliance Jio Infocomm served 533.3 million customers at the end of June, including 284.9 million on 5G. Ambani said this was the largest 5G customer base outside China. Average revenue per user (ARPU) rose to Rs 215.6 a month.

Average monthly data consumption per customer reached 43.7 GB in the first quarter of FY27.

The company reported EBITDA of Rs 76,225 crore in FY26, with a compound annual growth rate of 17.8% between FY24 and FY26. Its EBITDA margin stood at 53.3% in the first quarter of FY27, Ambani said.

Ambani identified home broadband as the company’s biggest growth engine, while pointing to industry-wide additions of about 340 million 4G and 5G customers between FY26 and FY31 as another growth driver.

Jio had 28.6 million fixed broadband customers and accounted for 67.5% of India’s net fixed broadband additions in FY26.

Three Growth Engines At The Core

Ambani outlined a strategy centred on technology, digital connectivity and infrastructure, supported by three growth engines: mobility, home broadband, and enterprise and international services.

Jio’s technology platform, which Ambani described as an end-to-end technology stack, is central to the strategy. Its connectivity business serves 533.3 million customers, while its infrastructure includes 3,60,537 towers and 26,800 MHz of spectrum.

In mobility, Jio expects industry-wide additions of 340 million 4G and 5G customers between FY26 and FY31, creating opportunities to increase ARPU, a key measure of telecom operators’ revenue-generating capacity.

In enterprise services, Jio is targeting India’s estimated Rs 5.1 trillion addressable market for digital services in FY26. It also plans to monetise its technology stack in selected overseas markets.

Jio Highlights India’s Digital Transformation

Ambani highlighted the transformation in India’s digital connectivity since Jio entered the telecom market in 2016, when average download speeds were about 2.5 Mbps. They have since risen to around 68 Mbps nationally.

He said Jio’s average 5G download speed was 198.9 Mbps, roughly twice that of competing operators over the preceding three years. The company also highlighted the sharp decline in data costs since its entry into the market, saying its current pricing was among the lowest globally.

The expansion of affordable mobile data has helped drive greater consumption of online video, digital payments and other internet services, while the rollout of 5G and fixed broadband is creating additional opportunities for telecom operators to monetise demand for data.

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Ambani said the company’s goal was to help make India a leading digital society, with Jio serving as a partner in that transformation.

He positioned Jio Platforms as a technology company rather than merely a mobile carrier, saying it would sell its in-house network software and equipment to overseas operators, although the business remains overwhelmingly domestic.

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