Jio Platforms shifts focus from network capex to monetisation ahead of IPO

Jio Platforms is shifting its focus from network expansion to monetising the infrastructure and customer base it has built, as the company enters a phase where slower capital spending could provide greater room for earnings growth.

Enterprise technology, home broadband and digital services are expected to become increasingly important growth drivers, alongside the company's core mobility business.

According to people familiar with the matter cited by Moneycontrol, the company expects incremental revenue to translate into higher operating profit without a proportionate increase in capital expenditure.

The strategy marks a broader evolution for Jio Platforms, which is seeking to position itself as a digital services company rather than primarily a connectivity provider. Its growth strategy is built around four areas -- mobility, homes, enterprise and international technology services.

Jio Platforms is also preparing for its proposed initial public offering.

The company is targeting an October 21-23 window for the IPO, with the anchor book potentially opening on October 19 and the shares likely to list on October 28, subject to market conditions. Overseas roadshows have already concluded, with foreign investor interest reportedly strong.

Mobility remains the largest business and provides significant scope for further monetisation. Reliance Jio Infocomm had 524.4 million customers as of March 31, making it India's largest telecom operator. Its 5G customer base stood at 268.5 million, according to company disclosures.

Jio sees further room for subscriber growth as a large number of users remain on older networks. Around 240 million 2G users in India could potentially migrate to 4G and 5G, while the telecom industry also adds an estimated 20-25 million new users annually. Jio has historically captured about 60-65% of such migrations, according to the people cited by Moneycontrol.

Beyond adding subscribers, the company is looking to increase revenue per customer through higher-value plans and digital services. Changes in the subscriber mix alone could lift average revenue per user, or ARPU, by around 5-6% annually even without tariff increases, the people said.

Home broadband is another area where Jio is looking to expand its reach. The company has a 1.3 million route-km fibre network and is supplementing fibre connectivity with unlicensed band radio, or UBR-based fixed wireless technology, particularly in locations where extending fibre to individual homes is difficult or expensive.

Jio Platforms had around 27 million home broadband customers in its draft red herring prospectus, while its UBR customer base was approximately 6.5 million, according to the information cited by Moneycontrol.

The company is also evaluating newer digital offerings such as cloud PCs, cloud gaming and cloud-based high-performance computing. These services could help Jio increase the contribution of digital businesses to its overall revenue.

Connectivity currently accounts for roughly 85% of Jio Platforms' revenue, with digital services contributing the remaining 15%. The company sees the potential for that mix to move closer to 60:40 over the next few years, although people cited by Moneycontrol said this should be viewed as an aspiration rather than formal financial guidance.

Enterprise technology is emerging as another key growth opportunity. Jio wants to move beyond selling connectivity to businesses and capture a larger portion of their spending on information and communications technology.

India has around 70 million small and medium businesses, many of which remain underserved by digital infrastructure. Jio plans to combine connectivity with offerings such as customer relationship management, selected enterprise resource planning applications, managed Wi-Fi and other information and communications technology services.

The addressable Indian ICT market is estimated at around $52 billion, while telecom operators currently account for only about 5-7% of this opportunity, according to the people cited by Moneycontrol. This gives Jio an opportunity to compete for spending that is currently directed towards IT companies and system integrators.

Jio is also looking beyond India, with plans to take parts of its technology stack -- including UBR, network-core technology, software platforms and digital services -- to international markets.

Rather than investing heavily in building telecom networks overseas, the company is exploring partnerships with existing operators through managed services, revenue-sharing arrangements and joint ventures. Europe, East Asia and Africa are among the markets being explored, according to the people cited.

The international strategy could allow Jio to generate revenue from its technology and software capabilities while keeping the capital requirements relatively low.

With its major network investments largely behind it, the next phase for Jio Platforms will therefore depend increasingly on how effectively it can monetise its existing scale across mobility, homes, enterprise and digital services.