With 340 mn subscribers, Reliance Jio is now India's largest mobile network operator

Mukesh Ambani announced that the network has been gaining an average of 10 mn subscribers per month.

Anirudh Regidi|Aug 12, 2019, 20:16:41 IST

At the Reliance Annual General Meeting (AGM) held today, RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani announced that Reliance Jio had crossed the 340 mn subscriber mark, making it India’s largest cellular network.

Going by previous reports, Vodafone-Idea was in the lead earlier with a subscriber base of 394.8 mn as of March 2019. Airtel was a distant second at 325.1 mn and Jio was further behind at 306.7 mn. Vodafone-Idea’s subscriber count has fallen to around 325 mn, going by the latest estimates.

If confirmed, Ambani’s announcement also means that Reliance Jio is now the second-largest mobile network in the world.[caption id="attachment_7148911" align="alignnone" width="1024"]

Relaince Jio now has 340 mn users. Image: Reuters[/caption]Ambani also announced that the network has been gaining an average of 10 mn subscribers every month and that it won’t be long before Jio hits the 500 million subscriber mark.

Speaking of the company’s investments, Ambani stated that the investment cycle is now complete. He explained that the company’s infrastructure is already 5G ready and so future-proof. Currently, only minor investment is needed to allow for an increase in capacity as the subscriber count goes up.

Lastly, he added that Jio has been profitable since the first quarter when it went commercial.

5 September 2019 will mark the three-year anniversary of the launch of the Jio mobile network.

Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.

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