Bharti Airtel has reported a 61 per cent increase in net profit to ₹1,108 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, compared with ₹689 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The increase in profit was primarily due to growth in revenues from data services. Consolidated mobile data revenues grew 73.9 per cent to ₹2,204 crore, contributing more than one-third of the incremental revenues. The number of subscribers with 3G connections doubled to 12.5 million compared with 6.2 million last year.

In a statement, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, India & South Asia, said: “While the pace of growth across all segments has been satisfying, mobile data and DTH stood out. The industry awaits more 3G spectrum being made available even as we look forward to the implementation of policies relating to spectrum sharing and trading. These have become essential to deliver sustained broadband growth and high-quality service.”

Other indicators also looked good for the company. For example, the monthly churn, which is the rate at which subscribers leave the network for some other operator, came down from 3.2 per cent to 2.7 per cent.

The Average Revenue Per User remained flat at ₹202 a month. Revenue realisation for voice services has also increased from 36.6 paise per minute to 38 paise. Revenues from African operations grew 17.5 per cent in rupee terms and 12.1 per cent in constant currency terms. Data revenues stood at $102 million for the current quarter, contributing 8.8 per cent of overall Africa revenues compared with 5.3 per cent in the corresponding quarter last year. Airtel now has 3G services in 17 countries in Africa.

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