Jio adds 20-25 million 5G users every quarter, commands 65% market share

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Jio Platforms strengthened its position in India’s 5G market in the December quarter, accounting for about 65 percent of all subscribers, driven by rapid nationwide rollout, improving network quality, and an expanding digital services portfolio.

More than 53% of Jio’s total network traffic has now shifted to 5G, easing congestion on the 4G network and improving customer experience, Anshuman Thakur, Senior Vice President at Jio Platforms Ltd, said in a conference call with reporters on Friday.

“Every quarter, around 20–25 million consumers are either converting to 5G or joining our network to avail of 5G services,” Thakur said, adding that the migration has freed up 4G capacity while allowing Jio to serve more customers at higher quality levels.

Jio ended the quarter with a total subscriber base of 515.3 million, adding 8.9 million net subscribers, while its 5G user base crossed 250 million. The company also captured 99 percent of incremental industry subscriber additions in the 12 months ended November, reflecting sustained gains in active users.

For the quarter, Jio Platforms reported 12.7 percent year-on-year growth in operating revenue to Rs 37,262 crore, while EBITDA rose to Rs 19,303 crore, with a consolidated EBITDA margin of 52 percent. Profit after tax increased to Rs 7,629 crore.

ARPU rose to Rs 213.7, led by higher customer engagement, partly offset by promotional offers for unlimited 5G and Fixed Broadband services.

Commenting on average revenue per user (ARPU), Thakur said the improvement during the quarter was driven entirely by organic factors, with no impact from tariff hikes. He attributed the ARPU growth to a richer mix of offerings, higher adoption of 5G services, increased data usage, and customers migrating to higher-value plans. Thakur added that deeper engagement through digital services and improved network quality have also helped reduce churn, supporting sustained ARPU expansion even without any price increases.

Home broadband, fixed wireless accelerate growth

Beyond mobility, Jio’s home broadband business continued to scale rapidly, adding more than one million homes every month. The company now has over 25 million home broadband connections, including 11.5 million JioAirFiber homes, with the majority of new last-mile connections happening through 5G-based fixed wireless access (FWA).

Wireless technologies are increasingly replacing fibre in the last mile where feasible, without compromising quality. According to Thakur, wireless subscribers are consuming more data than fibre users, with service quality remaining at par or better. Jio has gained more than 800 basis points of market share in home broadband over the past 12 months, with 70 percent of incremental industry additions coming from its network.

To speed up deployments, Jio has built digital twins for towers and buildings, allowing automated identification of the optimal technology—fibre or wireless—for each premise, reducing manual intervention and installation time.

Digital services and Gemini Pro partnership

Jio is also deepening customer engagement through digital partnerships. Its recently launched Google Gemini Pro offer, bundled with unlimited 5G plans, has seen strong uptake, with tens of millions of users opting in.

Under the offer, Jio users get 18 months of Gemini Pro access, representing Rs 35,000 of value at MRP, including access to Gemini 3.0, Notebook LLM features, popular use cases such as Nano Banana, and 2TB of cloud storage. Thakur said the partnership adds value for customers while giving Jio deeper insights into consumer behaviour, making it a win-win arrangement.

Enterprise, hyperscaler push

On the enterprise side, Jio is expanding beyond connectivity into managed services, managed Wi-Fi, and sovereign AI cloud offerings tailored to regulatory requirements. These services are gaining traction in sectors such as BFSI, retail, and commerce.

The company is also positioning itself as a key connectivity partner for hyperscalers, offering high-throughput, low-latency links across data centres, enterprises, offices, and homes—an increasingly critical requirement as AI workloads scale.