Jio’s aggressive strategy on spectrum, new JioPhone offers and the impending launch of low-cost smartphones are likely to help regain subscriber momentum, according to a report.

Near-term delay in tariff hike does not de-rail the long-term structural uptrend story in average revenue per user as any consolidation could further boost Jio’s subscriber addition, said JM Financial.

Jio’s subscriber momentum remained muted in the course of 2020-21, partly on account of spectrum constraints because of a surge in data usage post-Covid.

“Better execution and positioning of the competition (Bharti) which has enabled it to gain a higher share of mobile broadband subscribers. However, we believe the subscriber momentum could be bottoming out, given the aggressive strategy of Jio to acquire significant quantities of spectrum in the higher frequency bands,” it observed.

New “aggressive” Jiophone offers, followed by the impending launch of the low-cost smartphones, are likely to help regain subscriber momentum. It also observed that Jio’s net subscriber addition had remained subdued, averaging 2.3 million addition per month against 4.7 million in March 2020.