The telco reached 334 towns and cities with its 4G service by the end of September
Indian telecom operator Bharti Airtel said it served 235.2 million mobile phone subscribers in India at the end of the fiscal second quarter of 2015, up 11.1% compared to the same time last year.
Taking into account the telco’s operations in India, South Asia and Africa, the carrier’s total customer base hit 326 million customers at end of September, climbing 12.1% vs. the same quarter the previous year.
“With the commercial launch of high-speed 4G services across 334 towns, and rollout of 3G services in our gap circles, we are now best positioned in the industry to leverage the fast-growing data market,” said Bharti Airtel’s CEO for India and South Asia, Gopal Vittal.
Bharti Airtel initially launched India’s first LTE network in Kolkata in April 2012, through spectrum in the 2300 MHz band. The number of LTE sites is expected to grow to 40,000 by the end of March, according to Bharti Airtel’s Chairman Sunil Mittal.
In the 3G segment, Bharti Airtel ended September with 62,447 sites across India, compared to 38,055 sites at end September 2014.
Bharti Airtel’s net profit for the quarter totaled 15.23 billion rupees ($234.6 million), up 10.1% year-on-year. The operator reported total revenue of 238.36 billion rupees, climbing 6.6% year-on-year. Revenue from India grew 13.3% year-on-year in fiscal Q2.
The operator has operations in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and 17 countries in Africa.
ZTE’s net profit up 42% year-on-year, January-September
Chinese telecom equipment vendor ZTE recorded net profits of 2.6 billion yuan ($409 million) in the first nine months of 2015, up 42% compared to the same period the previous year, mainly driven by increased sales of optical network products and LTE solutions to carriers. Revenue increased by 16.5% year-on-year to 68.5 billion yuan in the first nine months.
Revenue from the carrier networks division grew by more than 22% in the first nine months as the Chinese company increased sales of LTE infrastructure systems and optical network products.
