Digital company Jio on Friday reported a 44.9 per cent jump in its net profit to Rs. 3,651 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2021, according to a company statement.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 2,519 crore in the year-ago period.

Its revenue from operations increased 9.8 percent to Rs. 18,952 crore during the reported quarter from Rs. 17,254 crore a year ago, PTI reported from New Delhi.

Jio’s total customer base stood at 440 million at the end of the April-June 2021 quarter and the average revenue per user was Rs. 138.4 per month during the reported period.

“Healthy customer gross addition at 26.7 million in the quarter over the trailing quarter (was) driven by traction across mobility and homes.

“Churn reduced further during the quarter to 0.95 per cent on the back of customer-focused initiatives to minimize COVID led disruption. These included complimentary offers for JioPhone users, Emergency Data Loan, WhatsApp recharge option, and Freedom Plans with no daily data limits,” Jio said in the statement.

Last month at the AGM of parent company Reliance Industries Ltd., billionaire and owner Mukesh Ambani had unveiled the much-awaited JioPhone Next co-developed with Alphabet Inc.’s Google, a handset designed to target India’s hundreds of millions of first-time smartphone users.

The launch of the budget phone came nearly a year after Google agreed to buy a $4.5 billion stake in Jio Platforms Ltd., the digital arm of Reliance Industries, Reuters and Bloomberg had then stated.

Global tech leaders like Google and Facebook Inc. have jumped on the Reliance bandwagon as they look for ways to grab a slice of the Indian market where an estimated 300 million first-time smartphone users are expected to start accessing the internet by 2025, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India.

But standing in the way of the Google-Jio alliance will be China’s fast-rising coterie of leading smartphone makers. Xiaomi Corp., Oppo, Vivo and OnePlus have already established their brands, credentials and some manufacturing facilities in India, with their domestic approach of high specs at low prices resonating well with the Indian consumer, a Bloomberg report had countered.