RIL 49th AGM: Jio eyes satellite broadband system, plans to lease satellite capacity from global providers

In the annual general meeting on Friday, Chairman and MD Akash Ambani announced that the company is planning to develop a ‘sovereign low-earth orbit satellite’ made in India, which aims to deliver better connectivity to customers.

“Jio is evaluating the development of a sovereign low-earth orbit satellite constellation for India,” said Akash Ambani during his shareholders' address in the Reliance AGM.

Akash Ambani also disclosed that Jio is already partnering with global satellite providers to move towards a satellite broadband ecosystem, for which the company is leasing the satellites while it continues to develop its own.

“We are also partnering with the leading global constellation providers by leasing satellite capacity, so that we can accelerate service availability while building our own long-term sovereign capability,” he said.

Why a satellite broadband system?

Jio plans to expand its operations into the satellite broadband ecosystem in an effort to meet the country’s rising connectivity needs. The company also aims to set up ground station infrastructures in the country to support the satellite system's needs.

“This dual approach will enable Jio to meet India's connectivity needs faster, while laying the foundation for the Indian satellite broadband platform of global scale to anchor this ambition. Jio is also building its own ground station infrastructure in India,” said Ambani in his address.

Akash Ambani also said that the ground stations will also support Jio’s partner satellites as well as the company-made satellites in the future.

“These ground stations will support our partner constellations as well as our own future satellites, creating an end-to-end satellite broadband ecosystem from space to ground,” he said.

In the satellite broadband segment, Elon Musk-led Starlink, Bharti Airtel, BSNL, among others, are companies that aim to provide similar services to customers in the country. With a strong backbone of 524 million users in the financial year 2025-26, Jio, as the market leader, stands in a unique position to offer advanced services to its customers.

Jio's 5G subscriber base crossing 268 million marks the largest subscriber base for any single-country operator outside China, with 77 million net additions during the year. Ambani also said that the next chapter of Jio's growth story, will aim to make JioTrue5G the foundation of India's next big digital leap.

"Our dedicated network slicing will enable a new tier of high-performance connectivity for consumers and enterprises. Our cyclic beam-formed cell design significantly enhances coverage and capacity at high-footfall locations. Our target is to migrate all subscribers to 5G by 2030 while advancing India's leadership position in 6G standards," said Ambani in his address.

Board approves Jio IPO

In the AGM, Reliance Group Chairman Mukesh Ambani said that the board of directors has approved the proposed initial public offering (IPO) of Jio Platforms as the company aims to raise funds from the Indian stock market via a fresh issue.

As per the latest exchange filing, the book-built Jio IPO will comprise a fresh issue of up to 27,00,00,000 or 27 crore equity shares with a face value of ₹10 each.

The company also highlighted that the issue price for the IPO will be determined through the book-building process, in accordance with the applicable regulations of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Reliance Industries holds around a 66.43% stake in Jio Platforms, while global giants Meta and Google own a 17.71% stake out of the remaining 33.57%. As this is a complete fresh issue, the proceeds from the public issue is likely to be used for company operations.