Indian telco Reliance Jio is reportedly moving to ramp up onboarding of new customers for its AirFiber 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) business over the next year in an apparent move to boost 5G ARPUs ahead of a planned IPO later this year.
According to a report from ETTelecom on Thursday, citing various analyst reports, Jio has been scaling up distribution and optimising the onboarding process for its AirFiber service to enable it to add at least 1 million new customers every 30 days.
Jio had over 2.8 million AirFiber connections at the end of September 2024, and was projected to add another 1.9 million home broadband users by the end of 2024, the report said.
In essence, Jio is banking on AirFiber to boost network traffic on its 5G network as well as its monthly 5G ARPU, which is three times higher for AirFiber than for Jio’s mobile 5G ARPU, the report said.
Despite having one of the largest 5G subscriber bases in the world, Jio has been struggling to monetise 5G after spending a reported US$25 billion (including spectrum costs) to roll out its nationwide network. Part of that has to do with initially promoting the service with unlimited data plans, as well as migrating low-value JioBharat phone users to 5G, which has kept ARPU relatively low.
In July 2024, Jio raised the price of its mobile 5G packages to boost 5G revenue, but the impact on its finance sheets won’t appear until at least the fourth quarter of this year, according to analyst estimates.
As such, growing its AirFiber business by a million new customers a month could enable Jio to boost 5G ARPU faster. That in turn would make a potential IPO for Jio’s parent company, Jio Platforms Ltd, more attractive, the report said.
Earlier this week, Sanford C Bernstein reportedly valued Jio Platforms at US$98 billion. At that valuation under current rules, a Jio Platforms IPO could be worth around INR421 billion (US$490.1 million), which would make it the largest IPO in Indian history.
That said, ETTelecom also reports, a senior Jio official recently told the publication Jio Platforms isn’t in a hurry to launch an IPO, as its investors – which include Google, Silver Lake, and Mubadala Investment Co “are committed for the long-term”.