Jio boasts 5G, FWA and cloud traction as IPO looms

• Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has published its fiscal third-quarter results
• Digital division Jio Platforms, which includes mobile operator Reliance Jio, is growing its 5G, broadband and cloud customer bases
• Jio Platforms is set to kickstart its IPO process soon

With sales, profits and customer numbers rising, the stage is being set for the much anticipated initial public offering (IPO) of Jio Platforms, the digital division of giant Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL). 

RIL has just published its fiscal third-quarter financials for the three months that ended 31 December 2025 and the company’s chairman and managing director, Mukesh Ambani, focused in his prepared remarks on the performance and potential of Jio Platforms, which boasts India’s leading mobile operator, Reliance Jio, as the jewel in its crown, though those remarks didn’t include any reference to an IPO timetable.  

“Jio’s digital ecosystem is deepening its roots in Indian households. Through our mobility and broadband products, we are connecting mobile phones, homes, appliances and enterprises. The synergistic value delivered by our connectivity and media platforms has meaningfully increased customer engagement. This quarter, Jio expanded its subscriber base further, through attractive propositions enabled by its comprehensive, indigenous technology stack tailored for Indian markets.”

Jio Platforms reported third-quarter revenues of 436.8bn rupees, up 12.7% year on year, and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of 193bn rupees, up by 16.4%. 

It ended December with a total of 515.3 million connections (mobile and fixed), of which 253 million are 5G connections: The company noted that its 5G connections now account for 53% of its wireless traffic volumes. 

It also ended calendar year 2025 with more than 25 million fixed broadband customers, and claimed that by increasing its customer base for Jio AirFiber to 11.5 million, it has become the first fixed wireless access (FWA) service provider in the world to surpass 10 million subscribers. 

“Customer engagement continues to remain strong on the back of 5G and fixed broadband adoption with total data traffic increasing 34% year on year to over 62 exabytes,” the operator noted.  

JioAICloud, its “intelligent cloud storage solution” that provides secure data backup and access to the latest AI tools, now has about 50 million registered users, following the introduction of Gujarati and Marathi in its voice search engine and the addition of the AI-driven auto-organisation of files. 

Investors and analysts are now waiting to see if there is any indication from RIL as to whether the IPO process for Jio Platforms will start imminently: Ambani noted last year that it was being planned for the first half of 2026. 

RIL is believed to be planning to offer 2.5% of Jio Platforms’ equity for public trading with a target of raising about $4bn in the process, and that plan was given a boost this week by news that the Indian government had reduced the minimum stake large companies must float in an IPO process from 5% to 2.5%. 

- Ray Le Maistre, Editorial Director, TelecomTV