Airtel had 187.7 mn subscribers at end-Sept

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Bharti Airtel, India's top mobile phone operator, which announced its quarterly financial results today, had 187.7 million mobile users at the end of September, of which 40 million were in Africa, the company said on Wednesday.

Earlier, Bharti, 32-percent owned by Southeast Asia's top phone firm SingTel reported a bigger-than-expected 27 per cent fall in quarterly profit after being squeezed by a price war in the world's fastest-growing mobile market.

Airtel said the  average revenue per user (ARPU) stood at Rs 202, down 20 per cent year on year, while the ARPU in its newly acquired African operations was $7.40 per month in the September quarter, down 1 per cent from the previous quarter.

Average minutes per user in its Africa business rose 9 per cent from the previous quarter to 112 per month.