Vodafone India, the Indian subsidiary of the world?s largest mobile telephony by subscribers Vodafone, on Tuesday reported flat revenues at ?1,056 million or R8,448 crore for the fiscal second quarter as the company slowed down in acquiring subscribers by paying high price.

The operating profit or Ebitda, a health indicator of a company, grew by 14.8% driven by better revenues and economies of scale, partially offset by higher customer acquisition costs and increased interconnection costs,? the company said in a statement.

The company added 3.4 million subscribers, half it added in the preceding quarter, as Indian telecom companies look to move from sheer subscriber acquisition strategy to focus on ?revenue earning quality? customers. Revenues for the June quarter were ?1,039 million or R8,312 crore. Subscribers are talking less. The subscribers spent 1,27,776 million minutes to talk, marginally higher than R127,626 million minutes in the June quarter and average revenue per user dipped to R168 from R169 during the period, lesser than market leader Bharti Airtel?s R183.

?India is an increasingly important market for Vodafone, and is one of its fastest growing segments,? said Robin Bienenstock, senior analyst, European & Latin American Telecommunications from Sanford C Bernstein. ?Revenues will be over 10% of Vodafone in the year ending March 2013, making it the fourth largest market after Germany, Italy and the UK.?

?Low relative mobile penetration and strong GDP growth in India means that the country is likely to maintain rapid growth for a number of years,? she added. According to her, following a period of rapid network expansion, the company is now beginning to contribute cash towards Vodafone group?

As its growth strategy, Vodafone India is betting big on data services and owns 27.5 million subscribers. ?Whilst the market remains highly competitive, the effective rate a minute is stabilising as operators increase headline voice tariffs and focus on promotional offers,? the company said.

India analysts were concerned about lower minutes of usage, higher interest on loans they borrowed and forex losses as rupee appreciated would take a toll on the telecom companies? financials in the September quarter.

Revenues Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular were subdued in the second quarter. Bharti?s revenues grew by 1.7% to R17,269.8 crore and Idea Cellular by 2% to R4,619.9 crore.