Reliance Communications Ltd, India's fourth-biggest mobile carrier by customers, saw profit rise 86% over the last year, as more subscribers use smartphones to surf the internet.
The company, which tied up with Facebook on Feb. 10 to provide basic internet services on mobile phones for free, said consolidated net profit for the December quarter was 2.01 billion rupees, compared with 1.08 billion rupees in the same quarter a year earlier.
Total data traffic during the quarter rose 83% over last year, the company said in a statement.
RCom, controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani, said data traffic increased due to a boost in both subscribers and higher data usage per customer.