The proportion of mobile phone consumers using Reliance Jio as their primary SIM is on the rise, according to the latest report by Bank of America and Merrill Lynch (BofAML).
The numbers are up from 66% in March 2017 to 77% in March 2019, analysts at the foreign brokerage noted. “A healthy 57%/65% of Jio users have linked their bank accounts/Aadhaar to their Jio number, while 76% have shared their Jio number with all their contacts and 90% recall their Jio number,” they said.
Jio has been outpacing its peers on all operating metrics for the past five quarters and has maintained its industry lead in the key average revenue per user (Arpu), which stood at `130 in the three months of October-December 2018.
Jio’s monthly churn remains the lowest in the industry at 0.61% per month. Jio continued its strong subscriber growth trend with net addition of 27.9 million subscribers during quarter ended
December 31, 2018. Its gross adds stood at 32.7 million and total subscriber base at 280.1 million.
Its data traffic at 86,40,000 million Mbs is highest in the industry. Compared with Q2FY19, it saw an increase of 12.1%. Data usage per customer was flattish at 10,800 MB in Q3FY19 against 11,000 MB per subscriber in the preceding quarter.
The brokerage further observed that Reliance Industries’ (RIL) perception as a consumer brand is also better post Jio launch. “RIL’s consumer services has materially improved post Jio launch with 80% of them referring it as more consumer friendly brand and 70% stating that they may try Reliance products and services in the future”. According to BofAML analysts this bodes well for
Reliance’s consumer ambitions of trying to garner 50% of EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) from consumer business in the future.
BofAML conducted an online survey of over 1,000 telecom users. The sample was directed mainly at high-end consumers, with 50% of the respondents with annual family income of more than `5 lakh.