Bharti Airtel profit doubles

NEW DELHI: India’s top mobile phone firm Bharti Airtel said its quarterly profit leapt by 115 percent, the first rise in four years, boosted by surging data use and an easing of price wars.
Bharti, the fourth-largest telecom firm globally, said net profit for the third financial quarter to December climbed to 6.1 billion rupees ($98 million) from 2.84 billion rupees in the same period a year earlier.
The company’s focus on Internet operations “has increased adoption and usage” of Bharti, said Indian chief executive Gopal Vittal. “Data is now a huge source of revenue,” Vittal added.
Bharti had clocked 15 straight quarters of profit decline before Wednesday’s rise.The Indian firm, with 287 million customers and operations in both Africa and Asia, said Internet revenue soared 105 percent year-on-year to 17.36 billion rupees.
Total revenue climbed 13.3 percent in the third quarter to 219.4 billion rupees from 193.6 billion rupees a year earlier.
Average revenue per user, a key industry profitability benchmark, jumped five percent in India.