New Delhi: Bharti Airtel Ltd., India's largest mobile phone service provider, said on Friday that its net profit in the most recent quarter surged 79 percent from a year ago, thanks to robust growth in new subscribers.
Net income during the July-September quarter totalled Rs 9.34 billion ($203 million), on a revenue of Rs 43.57 billion ($947 million), the company said in a statement.
The numbers, which conform to US accounting standards, beat expectations.
A Dow Jones Newswires poll of analysts had projected net profit to rise to Rs 8.54 billion rupees ($185 million) during the quarter.
The company's stock rose 3.4 percent to 502.45 rupees in early trade Friday.
Bharti added a record 4 million new customers between July and September, leading to 61 percent year-on-year increase in revenue during the fiscal's second quarter, the statement said.
''This quarter, for the first time ever, India's mobile net additions surpassed those of China,'' said Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and managing director.
India added about 17 million new wireless phone connections during the July-September period, taking the cumulative total to 129 million, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
The growth, one of the fastest in the world, has been driven by low tariffs and rising middle class incomes.
Still, India lags far behind China, which has some 430 million mobile phone subscribers, the highest in the world.
Bharti's cellular network currently covers 27.1 million subscribers in 4,000 cities and towns across the country. The company also provides broadband and landline services to 1.6 million customers in select cities.
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