Jio takes its mobile scale beyond telecom into homes, entertainment, enterprise

The company is trying to control more of the layers between connectivity and the consumer.
Team Moneycontrol
September 27, 2026 / 12:30 IST
JioBharat and its JioOS ecosystem give Jio a route into the large remaining 2G and entry-level consumer base, while its digital services portfolio allows it to monetise customers beyond connectivity.

• Jio Platforms Ltd has 524 million customers.
• Jio leads in mobile and broadband markets.
• Jio expands into home connectivity and entertainment.

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Jio Platforms Ltd entered India’s telecom market in 2016 as a challenger. A decade later, as it prepares to go public, its 524 million customer base gives the company scale not only in mobile and broadband but also in areas such as home connectivity, entertainment, devices, and enterprise services.

Jio built its leading market position with a new 4G network and low prices, while rivals were still using older 2G and 3G networks. It offered free calls and months of free data, introduced some of the industry’s lowest tariffs, and changed the economics of mobile services.

India’s largest telecom operator is now using the reach of its mobile network to build businesses around its massive customer base. It can extend connectivity from the phone into homes, use devices to bring more users into its ecosystem, and offer entertainment and other digital services on top of those connections. Enterprise services provide another avenue for monetising the network.

“Jio’s differentiation lies in the ecosystem it has created across mobile, fixed broadband, AirFiber, cloud, devices and enterprise services,” said Ashwinder Sethi, Partner, Analysys Mason. “Jio considers digital platforms and technology services as a core of its overall strategy rather than adjacency to connectivity. It also plans to deploy its own LEO satellite constellations as well as partner with satellite providers to offer rural connectivity and satellite-based services.”

From disruption to market leadership

The latest available TRAI data shows that India’s telecom subscriber base crossed 1.35 billion in July 2026, while broadband subscribers reached about 1.09 billion. Jio remained the largest broadband provider with 535.1 million subscribers, ahead of Airtel’s 384.2 million.

In mobile, Jio had about 506 million subscribers and a 39.3% market share at the end of July, followed by Airtel at around 38%. Vodafone Idea had roughly 130 million subscribers. The latest numbers show that Jio has continued to expand its scale even as the gap with Airtel in mobile subscribers has narrowed.

Telecom analyst Mahesh Uppal said Jio dominates the market because it built an exclusively 4G network, offered aggressive pricing, and benefited from the interconnect regime when it entered the market.

“The choice of 4G and having it exclusively for the network was a very ambitious as well as enlightened choice. That certainly helped and was quite decisive. It meant that Jio did not have multiple networks to support and maintain,” Uppal of ComFirst told Moneycontrol. That saved costs and influenced Jio’s pricing strategy, which was equally important.

Jio’s leadership is also visible in customer additions and network usage. Jio added about 27 million net active mobility customers in FY26, roughly three times the additions of the second-largest player. Its network carried 241.4 billion GB of data during the year, with monthly data consumption of 42.3GB per customer, versus 31.4GB for Airtel India and 20.2GB for Vodafone Idea.

Analysys Mason expects India’s mobile broadband base to rise to 1.34 billion by FY31 from about 1 billion customers at the end of March, while monthly ARPU is projected to increase to Rs 326.4 from Rs 199.8.

Jio is also expanding beyond mobile phones into homes. India’s fixed broadband market is expected to more than double from 63.6 million customers in FY26 to 150.4 million by FY31. Jio had 27.1 million fixed broadband customers, giving it a 42.6 percent market share, compared with 22.7 percent for Airtel.

More importantly, Jio captured 67.6 percent of net fixed-broadband additions in FY26, as per the DRHP. Its 5G and unlicensed-band radio-based fixed wireless access (FWA) business accounted for 12.9 million customers and 77.5 percent of the advanced FWA market.

The approaches are also diverging. Airtel is leaning towards fibre-to-the-home while reassessing the economics of 5G-based FWA amid rising equipment costs and weaker returns from wireless home broadband. Jio, by contrast, continues to pursue both fibre and FWA. That lets Jio offer fibre in established markets and FWA in homes where last-mile fibre deployment is harder.

Satellite extends connectivity strategy

Jio is looking beyond terrestrial networks. At Reliance Industries’ 49th annual meeting, it said it was evaluating a sovereign low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation for India, while also using capacity from global satellite operators to accelerate availability. The strategy aims to extend connectivity to remote areas where conventional networks are harder to deploy.

Neil Shah, vice president at Counterpoint Research, said this fits into a broader Jio connectivity strategy.

“Jio’s connectivity playbook is designed to leave zero gaps by extending far beyond terrestrial wireless and fixed-fiber networks into LEO satellite communication,” Shah said. “By orchestrating mobile, fixed broadband, rapid-deployment AirFiber, devices, and orbital connectivity under a single integrated ecosystem, Jio creates a seamless, ubiquitous delivery plan.”

Devices, entertainment and enterprise

The company is also trying to control more of the layers between connectivity and the consumer. JioBharat and its JioOS ecosystem give Jio a route into the large remaining 2G and entry-level consumer base, while its digital services portfolio allows it to monetise customers beyond connectivity.

“At a time when entry-level smartphone prices are climbing and creating an affordability barrier, controlling the device and operating system layer is Jio’s ultimate user-acquisition and retention moat,” Shah said.

“Devices powered by JioOS, such as JioBharat, allow Jio to capture the bottom of the consumer pyramid. This effectively locks those users into its proprietary payments, media, and cloud ecosystem before third-party app stores or operating systems can intermediate the relationship, creating a sticky, high-margin monetisation engine from day one,” he said.

That ecosystem extends into entertainment. Analysys Mason estimates India’s digital entertainment market will grow from Rs 51,700 crore in FY26 to Rs 89,000 crore by FY31. Jio has integrated OTT platforms, music and <a href="https://comicvibe.com/how-to-set-up-dolphin-emulator-for-flawless-retro-gaming/” title=”How to Set Up Dolphin Emulator for Flawless Retro Gaming”>gaming into its connectivity offerings and has partnerships with more than 15 OTT providers.

Enterprise digitisation provides another growth opportunity. India’s business connectivity market is projected to reach Rs 88,000 crore by FY2031, while less than 5 percent of MSMEs are estimated to have fixed broadband.

Meanwhile, AI increasingly sits across these businesses. Jio has developed a technology stack spanning network software, devices and applications, while positioning AI for network automation, consumer services, cloud and enterprise applications. It has also developed a “Made in India” 4G and 5G stack and was the first Indian operator to deploy standalone 5G.

Team Moneycontrol
first published: Sep 27, 2026 12:30 pm

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