India's top mobile phone company, Bharti Airtel, said first-quarter net profit increased by a better-than-expected 34 percent, as subscriptions rose in the world's fastest-growing wireless market.

Net profit for the three months to June was 20.25 billion rupees (470 million dollars) from 15.12 billion rupees for the same period a year ago.

Revenues climbed 44 percent to 84.83 billion rupees.

"On the mobile side, monthly customer adds crossed the 2.5 million mark in the quarter," Bharti chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said in a statement.

"This demonstrates the Indian telecom growth story is intact, with the rural markets witnessing strong uptake," he said.

The company added a record 7.5 million customers during the quarter, the most ever in a single three-month period.

The customer base jumped 61 percent to 70 million -- most of them in the mobile sector -- during the quarter from the same period a year earlier.

The company said it would maintain its guidance for standalone capital expenditure at 2.5 billion dollars for the year to March-end, company officials said.

Bharti shares fell 18.05 rupees or 2.21 percent to 797.95 while the benchmark Mumbai stock exchange Sensex index closed 165.27 points down or 1.11 percent to 14,777.01.

The Indian telecommunications sector has been witnessing unprecedented growth, led by the mobile segment, spurred by the world's lowest tariff structure.

Bharti, the market leader in the Indian mobile sector with a 24.2 percent market share, is 30 percent owned by Singapore's SingTelNet.

Analysts say India is just at the beginning of a telephone boom.

They also expect Bharti to maintain its leadership position, but said a rise in spectrum charges may impact margins in coming years.

Bharti has a "neutral" investment rating from brokerage Enam Securities.

Home to more than a billion people, India is the world's fastest growing telecommunications market with around 15 percent of its population owning mobile phones, compared with some 36 percent in China.

Source: AFP