In the early days of his foray into telecommunications, Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani famously compared the price of data offered by his Jio brand to the popular Mumbai snack vada pav. The idea of low data prices, which Jio ushered in to disrupt the market, has defined the brand’s growth to date and has been instrumental in helping it reach over half a billion subscribers.

Now, in the tenth year of its telecom business and with plans to list in the first half of 2026, Reliance is subtly shifting focus towards realising greater value from its massive investments, including Rs 88,078 crore for 5G spectrum. The plans include nudging subscribers to higher-value recharge packs, a greater focus on the more lucrative home broadband space, and cost-cutting measures. 

Fresh realisation

Both Jio and Bharti Airtel have started experimenting with ways to improve their realisation per user (tracked by the key metric Average Revenue Per User or ARPU) without upfront tariff hikes. In May, they removed the starter 4G pack (the Rs 249 plan, offering 1GB data per day), nudging the user to a higher-value pack (Rs 299, offering 1.5GB data per day).