On Friday, the country’s largest telecom operator by market share, Reliance Jio, reported its slowest revenue and profit growth in the past seven quarters in January-March, without any overall tariff hike.

Jio Platforms’ consolidated operating income rose 2.3% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 25,465 crore, while net profit rose 2.1% to Rs 4,984 crore in the same period.

Jio Platforms owns the digital and connectivity business of parent company Reliance Industries, with a significant contribution to its business coming from its telecom arm, Reliance Jio.

Jio added 6.4 million subscribers, up from 5.3 million in the previous quarter. The company had 439.3 million total subscribers as of March 31, up from 432.9 million at the end of December. “Jio posted an industry-leading net subscriber addition of 29.2 million in FY23, with a steady 2% monthly churn rate,” the company said.

Jio’s average revenue per user per month (ARPU) increased to Rs 178.8 in the current quarter from Rs 178.2 in the preceding quarter. Analysts had expected an ARPU of around Rs 179 for the company.

The company’s consolidated operating profit or Ebitda rose 2% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 12,767 crore on weak revenue growth. Analysts said Ebitda margins fell slightly to 50.1% in the March quarter, as the impact of lower spectrum usage charges (SUC) in the previous two quarters was fully factored in.

Total data traffic increased 4.5% quarter-over-quarter to 30.3 billion GB. Part of the growth can also be attributed to the large number of new fibre broadband subscribers added during the quarter. “In the areas where we have deployed 5G, we have seen a 3-4x increase in data consumption. We have also been seeing consumers upgrade in our home broadband plans,” said Kiran Thomas, president of Reliance Jio.

“Jio has made great strides in being the first to roll out 5G nationwide with unparalleled speed of execution. 5G has significantly improved the customer experience, reflected in the higher engagement of Jio users. Jio remains committed to building through a tailored technology platform A strong digital society that will drive continued growth in revenue and value for all stakeholders,” said Akash M Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Jio.

The company’s average data consumption per user rose more than 3% to 23.1 GB monthly.

VoIP consumption rose 3.14% quarter-on-quarter to 1.31 trillion minutes in January-March. Correspondingly, average voice usage per user per month increased by 1.8% quarter-over-quarter to 1,003 minutes.

On a standalone basis (Reliance Jio), the company’s net profit rose 1.7% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 4,716 crore, while its revenue rose 1.7% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 22,998 crore in January-March.

“Jio continues to empower millions of citizens nationwide by extending True 5G coverage to over 2,300 towns and cities in just 6 months. Expanding, the Jio business continued to deliver impressive operating profit growth,” said RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani.