Idea Cellular Q3 net profit doubles, misses estimates

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) - Idea Cellular Ltd's quarterly net profit doubled as it benefited from reduced competition and an increase in voice call prices in the world's second-biggest mobile phone market by customers, but missed analysts' estimates.

India's No.3 cellular carrier by revenue and customers reported consolidated net profit of 4.68 billion rupees for its fiscal third quarter ended December, compared with 2.29 billion rupees a year earlier.

Analysts on average had expected Idea, part of the Aditya Birla conglomerate, to report a consolidated net profit of 5.13 billion rupees, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters StarMine.

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy and Prashant Mehra; Editing by Anand Basu)