Reliance Jio Infocomm's aggressive customer acquisition strategy - involving offering completely free services – has come at a cost, with the Indian operator reporting a wider 225 million rupee ($3.5 million) net loss for the six months ending in March.
The 4G operator also reported a 76% decline in net profit for the period to 5.4 million rupees, the Economic Timesreported. Total expenses meanwhile grew to 348.8 million rupees from 136.3 million rupees in the same period a year earlier.
During the period, Reliance Jio was offering all its services for completely free under two successive introductory offers, as part of its aggressive customer acquisition strategy.
Jio started charging for data from April 1 but plans to keep voice calls free. After repeated complaints from rivals, regulator Trai also finally cracked down on Jio's pricing practices earlier this month by demanding the operator withdraw a promotion that would have provided a further three months of free services to customers making a first recharge payment of at least 303 rupees.
The bold strategy has helped Jio attract 108.9 million users as of the end of March, less than six months after officially launching services.