Bharti Airtel, country's largest mobile operator, today reported nearly three-fold jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,383 crore for the September quarter led by growth in mobile data revenues.
Airtel said this is the highest quarterly profit since March 2011.
The company had reported a net profit of Rs 512 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal, it said in a statement.
Airtel's total revenue rose 7.1 per cent to Rs 22,845 crore for the the second quarter ended September 30, 2014 as compared to Rs 21,324 crore in the corresponding period.
"Consolidated mobile data revenues at Rs 2,540 crore grew by 66.7 per cent year-on-year, contributing more than two- thirds of the incremental revenues," Airtel said in a statement.
Mobile data traffic grew significantly by 94.6 per cent to 78.1 billion MBs during the quarter as compared to 40.1 billion MBs in the corresponding quarter last year.
Airtel said mobile data revenues now represent 11.1 per cent of the total revenues as compared to 7.1 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year.
Airtel said for India, mobile data revenue registered a growth of 73.8 per cent y-o-y at Rs 1,805 crore, uplifted by increase in data customer base and higher usage per customer. Mobile data revenues now contribute to 14.5 per cent of mobile India revenues.
"We continue to see strong momentum in mobile data which has grown by 74 per cent in this quarter. Airtel's pioneering 4G roll-out in 15 cities is now witnessing stronger customer acceptance," Bharti Airtel MD and CEO (India & South Asia) Gopal Vittal said.
The company said it continued to accelerate mobile data growth in India with 40.1 million data customers as on September 30, 2014, representing a growth of 43 per cent as compared to 28 million at the end of the corresponding quarter last year.
"Voice realisation per minute on a sequential basis dropped marginally as a result of competitive interventions; however, the realisation of 37.69 paise reflects an increase of 0.90 paise over the corresponding quarter last year," Airtel said.
The churn in India has improved to 3.1 per cent for the reported quarter as compared to 3.2 per cent last time.
