Detailed Rationale

Crisil Ratings has reaffirmed its 'Crisil A1+' rating on the commercial paper programme of Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL).

 

JPL is the parent entity of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL; 'Crisil AAA/Stable/Crisil A1+'), and holds the digital services business of the RIL group. Digital services and retail are key growth engines for the group. JPL has investments in digital technology, including artificial intelligence, online education, digital media and content. 

 

The rating reaffirmation reflects the leading market position of RJIL in the telecommunication (telecom) sector in India, its strong operating performance and a healthy financial risk profile. The ratings also factor in the strategic importance of the company to Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL; ‘Crisil AAA/Stable/Crisil A1+’). These strengths are partially offset by exposure to regulatory and technological risks.

 

Operating performance of RJIL has continued to grow. In fiscal 2025, revenue grew ~14% to Rs 114,140 crore while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation and payment of lease rentals (Ebitdar) grew by 15.8% to Rs 61,233 crore, supported by expansion of 80 basis points in Ebitdar margin. This was largely driven by improvement in average revenue per user per month (ARPU). ARPU rose to Rs 206 in fiscal 2025 from Rs 182 in fiscal 2024, on account of tariff hikes undertaken in July 2024. Net subscriber addition in fiscal 2025 moderated to 6.4 million from 42.5 million in fiscal 2024 owing to tariff hikes, compared with 1.5 million addition for the industry. Nonetheless, RJIL maintained its leading market position.

 

The company saw significant increase in net subscriber addition in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, with 9.9 million additions, up from 6.1 million in the previous quarter. The subscriber additions were driven by growth in home broadband connections. Home broadband connections increased by 2.6 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 to 20 million connected households. ARPU also rose to Rs 209 in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 from Rs 206 in the previous quarter. RJIL’s operating revenue was Rs 30,882 crore for the first quarter of fiscal 2026, higher by ~16.6% on-year, aided by subscriber additions and ARPU increase. The Ebitda margin was 56% in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, compared with 53% in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal, driven by operating leverage.

 

Consolidated gross revenue of JPL grew ~19% on-year to Rs 35,032 crore in the first quarter of fiscal 2026, driven by the strong performance of RJIL. Moreover, the company maintained healthy Ebitda margin of 51.8%.

 

Rising data consumption and adoption of 5G services, along with re-balancing of plans by the company, will lead to subscribers up-trading to pricier plans, which will support growth in ARPU in the near-to-medium term for RJIL. Improvement in subscriber addition will be supported by increase in home broadband connections. Collectively, these factors will lead to growth in revenue as well as operating profit over near-to-medium term.

 

The improvement in the business risk profile was accompanied by an improved financial risk profile, led by reduction in net leverage. JPL’s net leverage improved to 2.6 times as on March 31, 2025 (compared with 3.2 times a year earlier), on the back of strong earnings growth. Furthermore, improved cash flow led to capital expenditure (capex) funded through internal accrual with no reliance on external debt.

 

Capex is expected to moderate over the medium term as mass 5G networks have been established. The capex may reduce as most of the purchase was completed in fiscal 2023. RJIL acquired significant spectrum for Rs 87,947 crore in the spectrum auction held in August 2022 to initiate pan-India 5G rollout. In the auction held in June 2024, RJIL acquired Rs 974 crore worth of spectrum.

In the near-to-medium term, strong operating profit with lower capex will continue to contribute towards steady deleveraging. Higher-than-expected outgo for network layout or spectrum acquisition along with any significant debt-funded acquisitions, which could have a bearing on the financial risk profile, will remain key monitorables.

 

RJIL has offtake arrangements with special-purpose vehicles, including Jio Digital Fibre Pvt Ltd (‘Crisil AAA/Stable/Crisil A1+’) and Summit Digitel Infrastructure Pvt Ltd (‘Crisil AAA/Stable’) for use of optical fibre and telecom tower infrastructure, respectively. Access to strong backhaul and national backbone network through these offtake arrangements provides RJIL significant advantage, given the growing data consumption in India.

Analytical Approach

Crisil Ratings has combined the business and financial risk profiles of JPL and its subsidiary, RJIL, considering the 100% ownership, and common management and operations. Also, Crisil Ratings has applied its parent notch-up framework to factor in the support from RIL. The support will likely continue, given the strategic importance of JPL to RIL, and strong linkages between the entities. Deferred payment liabilities of RJIL to the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) towards acquisition of spectrum have been considered as debt. 

 

Please refer Annexure - List of Entities Consolidated, which captures the list of entities considered and their analytical treatment of consolidation.

Key Rating Drivers & Detailed Description

Strengths:

• Sustenance of market share and leadership position: RJIL has a healthy subscriber base and revenue market share with pan-India network. As per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the company had a wireless subscriber base of 47.70 crore as on June 30, 2025 (market share of ~41%). Revenue market share (including national and international long distance) was strong ~42% as on March 31, 2025.

 

RJIL purchased spectrum worth ~Rs 974 crore in the auction held in June 2024. Post the auction, RJIL’s total owned spectrum footprint has increased significantly to 26,797 megahertz (MHz) (uplink + downlink), which is the highest in India. It also has access to an extensive network of telecom towers and optical fibre network in the country. This, along with the acquisition of spectrum in the premium 700 MHz band in the auction held in August 2022 will help RJIL provide superior quality services and enhanced coverage across circles, results in better operating efficiency.

 

• Strong operating performance: The operating performance of RJIL continues to improve. The parameters driving operating performance have demonstrated healthy growth over the past fiscals. ARPU increased at compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of ~9.6% over fiscals 2020-2025 to Rs 206 from Rs 131, while wireless subscriber base has risen to ~Rs 48.8 crore at CAGR of ~5%. Besides, data usage per subscriber per month has risen to 33.6 gigabytes, reporting CAGR of ~24% over fiscals 2020-2025. Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services also witnessed improving uptake on the back of affordable and bundled offerings.

 

• Healthy financial risk profile, aided by strong debt protection metrics: Overall debt of JPL stood at Rs 192,196 crore as on March 31, 2025, of which 57% was for deferred spectrum liabilities, 7% was in the form of lease liabilities and only the balance (30%) was external debt. JPL’s net leverage, including deferred payment liabilities, stood ~2.6 times as on March 31, 2025, as against ~3.2 times a year earlier. Despite substantial spectrum liabilities, the financial risk profile was healthy aided by improving operating performance. With strong cash accrual over the medium term, the cash flow will be utilised for deleveraging. Higher-than-expected investments on network and spectrum will remain monitorable.

 

• Strategic importance to RIL, and strong managerial and financial support: JPL, including RJIL, remains strategically important to the RIL group, given substantial investment made by the parent and its focus on setting up a large digital services business across the country. The majority stake held by RIL, active involvement of its management and the shared identity of Reliance support the rating. Furthermore, RIL and JPL have a common chairperson.

 

Weakness:

• Exposure to regulatory and technological risks: Regulatory and policy changes have played a central role in defining risk characteristics of the Indian telecom sector, which is structurally dynamic. The telecom industry remains susceptible to technological changes, with capex cycles every 8-10 years. New technology necessitates fresh investments or an overhaul of existing networks. For instance, with the launch of 5G services, players had to make significant investment in laying networks, even after incurring sizeable capex for 4G networks a few years ago.

Liquidity: Superior

RJIL, along with JPL, had liquidity of over Rs 31,200 crore as on June 30, 2025. Given the nature of business, working capital requirement is low. The credit risk profile of the company is supported by the parent, RIL, which has exceptional financial flexibility, given its demonstrated ability to access capital markets, its large cash and liquid investments, and significant unutilised bank lines.

Rating sensitivity factors

Downward factors:

• Change in the credit risk profile of RIL or reduction in its ownership in JPL to less than 51%
• Lower-than-expected return from investments

About RJIL

RJIL is a wholly owned subsidiary of JPL. RIL holds 66.43% stake in JPL. RJIL has built an all-IP data network with the latest 4G long-term evolution (LTE) technology, which supports voice over LTE. The network can be upgraded to support additional data, as technologies advance to 5G and beyond. JPL has created an ecosystem comprising network, devices, applications and content to provide seamless services. The company also provides FTTH services (or JioFiber).

About the parent, RIL

RIL is one of India's largest private sector companies with diverse interests, including petrochemicals, oil refining, and upstream oil and gas exploration and production. Oils-to-chemicals is the largest business by revenue, which includes oil refining and petrochemicals. In the recent past, consumer-facing businesses, including retail and digital services, have become principal growth drivers for RIL. Reliance Retail Ltd (‘Crisil AAA/Stable/Crisil A1+’) is India’s largest retail entity by revenue, while RJIL is the largest telecom service provider by subscriber as well as revenue market share in the country.

 

About JPL

Incorporated in November 2019, JPL is the parent entity of RJIL. RIL holds 66.43% stake in JPL. The company has created an ecosystem, comprising networks, devices, applications and content to provide seamless services. Along with RJIL, JPL has investments in digital technology, including artificial intelligence, online education, and digital media and content. 

Key Financial Indicators (standalone)

Particulars	Unit	2025	2024
Revenue	Rs crore	11,868	7,571
Profit after tax (PAT)	Rs crore	946	772
PAT margin	%	7.9	10.1
Interest coverage	Times	NM	NM
Adjusted debt/Ebitda	Times	NM	NM

NM: Not meaningful as the company has no borrowings

Any other information: Not applicable