Jio to become number 1 telecom operator this year: Reports

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s telecom venture Reliance Jio will this year become India’s No.1 telco in terms of both subscriber base and revenue, brokerages Bernstein and Credit Suisse said in separate reports Tuesday.

Jio, which stormed into the sector in 2016 by offering free voice calls and dirt cheap data on mobile phones, is reporting net profit and a positive return on invested capital was due to “non-standard depreciation metrics” and subsidies on selling bundled JioPhones being booked through Reliance Retail, Bernstein said.

“Our high-level attempt to normalise these factors points to a potential loss of Rs 15,000 crore in FY2019. Far worse than Bharti’s or Vodafone Idea’s,” it said.

Jio using non-standard depreciation and amortisation has been reported previously as well and the regulators have found nothing wrong with such a reporting.