India-based Reliance Jio added 86 million 5G users year-on-year in its fiscal Q2, with the total of 234 million accounting for nearly half of all mobile subscribers at the end-September, less than three years after launch.

The increase likely pushed Jio ahead of China Unicom as the third-largest 5G operator in the world. The Chinese company ended June with 213.5 million 5G subs. It reports Q3 figures on 22 October.

Jio’s total mobile subscribers base increased 5.8 per cent from a year earlier to 506.4 million.

Jio Platforms, the holding company of Reliance Jio, booked a 12.8 per cent increase in net profit to INR73.8 billion ($839.5 million) in the three months ending 30 September. Total revenue grew 14.9 per cent to INR426.5 billion.

In a statement, chair and MD of Jio parent Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani noted its digital services business “continues to scale-up with positive momentum” in subscriber additions across homes and mobility services.

ARPU continued to climb, rising 8.4 per cent to INR211.40. Average monthly data consumption grew 24.8 per cent to 37.8GB.

Subscribers of its fixed wireless access (FWA) service, Jio AirFibre, jumped more than threefold year-on-year to 9.5 million.