Bharti Airtel Q3 net profit jumps 115% to Rs 610 crore

Led by growth in data revenues, country's largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel's net profit rose 115.1 per cent to Rs 610 crore for the quarter ended December 2013.
The company had reported a net profit of Rs 284 crore in the corresponding period last financial year, the company said in a statement.
The company has seen a growth in its net profit after losses in 15 straight quarters.
"Our focus on superior Internet experience has resulted in increased data adoption and usage. Data is now a huge source of revenue growth," Bharti Airtel Joint MD and CEO (India operations) Gopal Vittal said.

Consolidated mobile Internet revenues grew by 105.2 per cent year-on-year to Rs 1,736 crore, accounting for more than one-third of the overall incremental revenue, the company said.
The company's total revenues rose 13.3 per cent to Rs 21,939 crore for the quarter as compared to Rs 19,362 crore in the same period of the last fiscal.

Airtel said data customer base in India has increased by 31.2 per cent to 54.4 million customers and usage per customer gone up by 54.4 per cent, leading to 97.0 per cent increase in total data traffic.
The average revenue per user (ARPU) increased by Rs 9.7 to Rs 195.

The company's net debt has been reduced to Rs 57,643 crore at the end of December 2013.
On the back of good results, Bharti Airtel's shares were trading at Rs 309.25 apiece in the morning trade, up 1.03 per cent.