India-based Reliance Jio reported a second consecutive quarterly profit and earnings of INR7.23 billion ($108 million) for its full financial year ending 31 March as it continued to add subscribers.

The operator, which launched 4G service in September 2016, posted a net profit of INR5.1 billion million in the January to March quarter, rebounding from an INR173 million loss in fiscal Q4 2017.

Operating revenue rose to INR71.3 billion in the latest quarter, up from INR68.8 billion in fiscal Q3 2018. It didn’t report any revenue in fiscal Q4 2017.

It announced its first profit of INR5.04 billion during calendar Q4 2017.

Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Jio’s parent Reliance Industries (pictured), said: “A full-blown social, mobile and digital revolution is underway across the world, and I am glad that India is not being left behind in any way. Everyone at Jio is today proud to have played a pivotal role in transforming the digital landscape of this country and empowering millions of Indians with all the leading digital tools and skills.”

He said its strong financial results in a competitive market environment demonstrates the robustness of its business model.

Metrics
Its mobile subscriber base rose by 83 million year-on-year to take its total to 187 million at end-March. Jio said it had 26.5 million net subscriber additions in the quarter (up from 21.5 million in the previous quarter).

ARPU dropped 11 per cent sequentially to INR137 in the January-March period.

Average data consumption per user per month hit 9.7GB, which the company said was the highest in India and one of the highest in the world. Average video consumption per user per month was 13.8 hours.

Data from GSMA Intelligence show Jio’s market share rose to 14 per cent at end-March 2018, from 9 per cent a year earlier. Despite its low-cost data and voice plans attracting new subscribers, the market share of the three large mobile players – Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular – was steady over the past 12 months at 24 per cent, 18 per cent and 17 per cent respectively.