Bharti Infratel profit up 31%

Mobile tower firm Bharti Infratel on Monday reported 31 per cent jump in net profit to ~774 crore for the quarter ended September against ~592 crore in the year-ago period. Revenues rose eight per cent to ~3,292 crore against ~3,041 crore in year-ago period.

During the quarter, the company completed the buyback of equity shares for ~2,000 crore. Commenting on the recent spectrum auctions, Akhil Gupta, chairman, Bharti Infratel said with the conclusion of the sale, the telecom sector was gearing up for the next round of network rollouts. 960 MHz of data spectrum was sold in the 800, 1800, 2100, 2300 & 2500 MHz bands for ~66,000 crore.

“The telecom sector is witnessing a big increase in demand for high speed data and availability of this additional spectrum will further spur investments from operators towards data rollouts across the country. Bharti Infratel is well poised to capitalise on this opportunity and to support telecom operators in rollout of 3G and 4G networks,” Gupta said. As on September 30, Bharti Infratel had 89,791 towers, with an average sharing factor of 2.21.