Jio move to charge for voice calls to help ARPU recovery: Ratings agencies

KOLKATA: Reliance Jio Infocomm’s decision to charge users for voice calls to other phone networks to account for interconnect usage charges (IUC) it pays rivals will help reverse the trend of falling average revenue per user (ARPU), India Ratings and CARE said.

But Jio’s move, they said, could discourage users from calling subscribers of other telcos, resulting in lower voice traffic, and in turn, restrict its actual Ebitda upside at 8-10%.

India Ratings & Research, a Fitch Group company, estimates Jio’s IUC recovery move will improve its ARPU — a key performance metric — by about Rs 9 (per month), although brokerage Kotak pegs sharper growth at Rs 15 per user per month.