Indian mobile boom boosts Bharti

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India's digital revolution has underpinned earnings at the country's top mobile phone provider Bharti Airtel during the latest quarter.

The flagship business of the Bharti conglomerate doubled its earnings for the three months to end of June to 15.1bn rupees ($374m; £182m).

The New Delhi firm, which also provides broadband, increased its customer base by 82% in the period to 45 million.

Mobile phone subscribers in India are on the rise as wages increase.

It is estimated by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) that there are now more than 130 million mobile phone users in the country and there could be 200 million by the end of this year.

Bharti Airtel has a 23.5% share of the Indian mobile market.

Rural expansion

But while India is the third-largest telecoms market behind China and the US, the number of people who own a telephone is still very low.

Most of Bharti's growth has been in urban centres where it has a fibre optic infrastructure.

It now plans to expand into India's rural areas, where a large portion of the population live.

"We believe that the Indian telecom sector is entering the next phase of growth," said Bharti Airtel chairman and chief executive Sunil Bharti Mittal.

"We will continue to expand our network aggressively to enhance penetration in the rural markets and be at the forefront of this growth."