Jio began by making voice calls free and data ridiculously cheap. A decade later, its parent digital services company Jio Platforms is preparing for a record-breaking IPO, with a valuation that could exceed Rs 10 lakh crore.
The IPO will be open for subscription on October 21 and close on October 23, as per the DRHP filed yesterday. It has set a price band of Rs 1,065-1,119 per share which can mean a valuation of nearly Rs 10.3 lakh crore, or approximately $108 billion. It is preparing to raise nearly Rs 30,000 crore in what could become India's largest IPO.
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The journey shows how a huge bet on mass connectivity reshaped Indian telecom and helped widen access to the digital economy.
In 2016, when Reliance Jio entered the market, few expected a newcomer to overturn India's telecom industry so quickly. RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani spent billions of dollars building a nationwide 4G network before the company had a paying customer base. He then gave away voice calls and offered data at prices that competitors struggled to match. As of March 31, 2026, it was the largest digital connectivity player with 268.5 million 5G customers. With 27.1 million subscribers across JioFiber and JioAirFiber, it was also the largest fixed broadband service provider in India as of 31st March, 2026.
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The Rs 25 billion bet that changed telecom
Jio was not built by gradually expanding an existing mobile business. Reliance invested an estimated $25 billion in network infrastructure, spectrum and technology before the commercial launch in September 2016. The strategy was to build capacity ahead of demand, then use low prices to attract customers on a national scale.
ET OnlineIn an interview with McKinsey last year, Ambani described Jio as Reliance's biggest risk: “We’ve always taken big risks because, for us, scale is important. The biggest risk we have taken so far was Jio. At the time, it was our own money that we were investing, and I was the majority shareholder.”
He recalled that some analysts believed India was not ready for advanced digital technology. His belief was that even if the investment failed to generate attractive financial returns, it could still transform the country. "Our worst-case scenario was that it might not work out financially because some analysts thought India wasn’t ready for the most advanced digital technology. But I told my board, “In the worst case, we will not earn much return. That’s okay because it’s our own money. But then, as Reliance, this will be the best philanthropy that we will have ever done in India because we will have digitized India, and thereby completely transformed India,” Ambani said in the interview.
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The wager was that a country with hundreds of millions of mobile users would consume far more data if connectivity became affordable. Customers flocked to the network, forcing established operators to cut tariffs and reconsider their business models.
The industry subsequently consolidated. Several operators exited or merged, leaving Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea as the principal private-sector mobile operators. Consumers gained from lower prices, though the industry's financial pressure also contributed to consolidation and job losses.
From Rs 0 offers to a Rs 10 lakh crore valuation
Jio's early pricing was designed to remove the cost of communication as a barrier. Its welcome offers gave customers free voice calls and substantial amounts of data for months after launch. Once promotional offers ended, the company continued to sell data at prices far below those prevailing before its entry.
The handset strategy followed a similar logic. In 2017, Reliance introduced the JioPhone, a 4G-enabled feature phone that could be obtained for an effective price of zero against a refundable security deposit of Rs 1,500, subject to the scheme's conditions. It was aimed at people who could not afford a conventional smartphone but wanted access to internet-based services.
The business that began as Jio has now transformed into Jio Platforms, the holding company of the telecom business Reliance Jio Infocomm. It also owns a wider ecosystem of digital services. The IPO is for Jio Platforms, not a separate listing of the telecom operator alone. Its business has expanded beyond mobile connectivity into home broadband, enterprise services and digital applications.
The IPO comprises a fresh issue of 27 crore shares, with proceeds intended partly to reduce debt at the telecom subsidiary and partly for general corporate purposes.
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The valuation is therefore not simply a reward for giving away data fpr cheap. Investors are valuing a large customer base, extensive network infrastructure, recurring telecom revenues and the potential to sell more services to existing users.
The digital economy's missing link
Jio's larger impact may lie in how it helped make internet access routine across income groups. Cheap data made it practical for users to watch videos, access government services, learn online and use digital payments without worrying constantly about data consumption.
The government's Digital India programme began in 2015, before Jio's commercial launch. Direct benefit transfers and Aadhaar-based systems were already being developed, while the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) was launched in 2016. Jio's agressive pricing did help expand the pool of people who could use digital services through mobile networks.
Digital public infrastructure, bank accounts, smartphone availability, merchant adoption and government policy were all necessary to the growth of India's digital economy. Jio's contribution was to make connectivity substantially cheaper and more widespread, helping those systems reach users who might otherwise have remained on the margins.
The effects were visible in mobile broadband consumption. Within two years of Jio's launch, India had become the world's largest mobile data-consuming market. The spread of inexpensive data also helped create favourable conditions for the rapid adoption of online video, digital commerce and app-based services.
The same network now supports a much more sophisticated digital economy than the one Jio entered in 2016. The next challenge is to turn that reach into higher-value services while continuing to invest in 5G, broadband and enterprise technology.
A family dream, rebuilt for a digital age
Mukesh's father Dhirubhai Ambani's telecom vision is often recalled through his idea that a phone call should cost less than a postcard. Dhirubhai's underlying ambition was that communication should not be a luxury reserved for affluent Indians.
Mukesh Ambani took that principle into the internet age. His offer went beyond cheaper calls to include mobile data and, through the JioPhone, a low-cost route to 4G connectivity. The commercial model relied on enormous upfront investment and the expectation that a vast customer base would eventually support a profitable business.
Ambani has also described technology ownership as central to Reliance's future. Speaking to McKinsey last year, he said: “We want to create impact at scale that improves the lives of all Indians. Therefore, businesses of the future will have to be good at harnessing technologies of the future. So, our North Star always has been that our vision and purpose of doing business have to be impact-led.”
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That ambition now extends beyond telecom into 5G, artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing. But Jio remains the clearest demonstration of the strategy of investing heavily, making a critical service affordable and build scale before the full financial returns are visible.
The move from an effective zero-cost handset offer to a prospective valuation above Rs 10 lakh crore is the financial outcome of a business that helped change how hundreds of millions of Indians connect to the world. Whether Jio can sustain its growth and justify its IPO valuation will depend on what it does next. Its role in making mobile internet a mass-market service is already central to the story of India's digital transformation.