What Idea Cellular took 17 years to achieve, Reliance Jio did in 16 months

It’s been only 16 months since Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd launched commercial operations, but it may have already overtaken Idea Cellular Ltd on revenue. 

The new entrant reported revenue of Rs6,879 crore for the December quarter. In comparison, Idea Cellular is expected to report revenue of around Rs6,700 crore, based on consensus Street estimates. 

Idea Cellular had launched operations in 1997 and it wasn’t until 2014 that it reached a similar size in revenues terms.

In other words, what took Idea Cellular 17 years to accomplish, Reliance Jio has done in 16 months.

Even Bharti Airtel Ltd took around 13 years before its revenues reached Jio’s annual run-rate of around Rs28,000 crore in 2008