Articles by Vallari Sanzgiri

Technology

Reliance and Google to offer 18-month free Google AI Pro access to Jio users; worth ₹35,100 per user

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), through Reliance Intelligence Limited, and Google partnered on Thursday to roll out Google’s AI Pro plan that allows access to the latest version of Google Gemini to eligible Jio users free of charge for 18 months. This offer can only be claimed once on every unique mobile number by an eligible Jio user. This 18-month offer is worth ₹35,100 per user and can be activated via the MyJio app. Users in the 18-25 age bracket on unlimited 5G plans will have early access to the offer based on the e-KYC verification document. Users must continuously maintain an active 5G plan for the duration of the offer to access Google Gemini offer benefits. This offer is eligible only for Jio retail users. Non-Jio users between 18 to 25 years can get a new Jio SIM and activate an unlimited 5G plan of ₹349 or above, to become eligible for the Google Gemini offer from Jio. The benefits include higher access to Gemini 2.5 Pro model, higher limits to generate images and videos with Nano Banana and Veo 3.1 models, expanded access to Notebook LM for study and research, 2 TB of cloud storage and more. Through this partnership RIL will access advanced AI hardware accelerators, Tensor Processing Units (TPUs). This expanded collaboration also establishes Reliance Intelligence as a strategic go-to-market partner for Google Cloud, driving the adoption of Gemini Enterprise across Indian organisations, said the company in a press release. Reliance Intelligence will also develop and offer its own pre-built enterprise AI agents in Gemini Enterprise, expanding the available choice of both Google-built and third-party agents to users. Mukesh D Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries Limited, said, “Reliance Intelligence aims to make intelligence services accessible to 1.45 billion Indians.” Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, said, “Today’s announcement will put Google’s cutting-edge AI tools in the hands of consumers, businesses and India’s vibrant developer community. I’m excited for how this partnership will help expand access to AI across India.” Published on October 30, 2025

Technology

RJio seeks higher valuation ahead of IPO with boost to ARPUs

Reliance Industries’ telecom arm Jio Infocomm would be seeking a higher valuation in the range of $140-150 billion ahead of its forthcoming initial public offer next year and look to boost the average revenue per user (ARPU) through a mix of tariff hikes and higher data usage., sources said. Analysts said that the company may hike tariffs in early 2026 and its goal would be to take it to ₹220 levels or even higher if feasible. “Any delay in tariff hike would pose downside risks. We expect FY25-28E revenue/EBITDA/PAT CAGR of approximately 16 per cent/19 per cent/24 per cent, driven by tariff hike flow-through in wireless and acceleration in FWA offerings,” said Motilal Oswal in a note post earnings from RIL. It has estimating RJio enterprise valuation of ₹12.4 trillion ($141 billion) based on discounted cash flow expected around 13 times the EBITDA of December 2027 estimates. Reliance Jio did not respond to emails seeking clarification on the information. In its analyst call RJio clarified that there are no immediate plans for a tariff hike, but Motilal Oswal still estimates the next round of tariff hikes, around 15 per cent or ₹50 per month on the base pack, to start from December 2025. This will be a huge increase for users. Motilal Oswal raised its FY26-28 revenue and EBITDA estimates by around 1 per cent each, driven by higher net adds in fixed broadband and the corresponding boost to blended ARPU. A telecom analyst under anonymity said that Jio needs another 5-10 per cent hike before the IPO listing. Over the past year, Jio increased ARPU by ₹15-16 going from ₹195 monthly to ₹211. Using this trajectory, ARPU may increase ₹6-8 in the next two quarters, said the analyst. This means Jio is more likely to reach an ARPU of ₹225 per month by the first half of 2026 rather than the required ARPU of ₹230 with the current strategy unless they reach ramp up subscriptions. “Discarding tariff, ramping up data usage and bundles with value added services are the company’s next best bet,” said the analyst. Meanwhile, an equity expert said Jio could twist one tariff plan deal to achieve the desired ARPU. However, the company could stand to lose market share if the tariff is raised too high. Earlier, there were media reports of Jio along with another telco had withdrawn its entry-level plan. According to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti, the two telcos clarified that that while one of the service provider had withdrawn the entry-level plan, the other continues to offer the plan in its stores. “We have examined that and we found that competitive plans are already available if somebody wants to buy a low-level entry plan,” said Lahoti. Higher ARPU would need to be substantiated with a good subscriber base to justify valuation, said the equity analyst. Since the company is unlikely to let subscriptions take a hit, they may look at other channels like B2B solutions, etc. Still, higher mobile tariffs and faster growth in home broadband business should support ARPUs, said Jeffries in its report. “We lower our ARPU assumptions by 1 per cent and expect Jio’s ARPU to rise at 11 per cent CAGR to ₹272 over FY25-28, led by three tariff hikes of 10 per cent each in 3QFY26/27/28,” it said. Published on October 25, 2025