Bharti Airtel on Monday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,522.7 crore for the July-September quarter, a 2% drop from the previous quarter, although a 10% increase from the corresponding quarter last financial year. The company said the annual increase in net profit was  largely driven by sharp growth in mobile data usage.

Bharti Airtel’s Data ARPU grew 7 % at Rs 193 durinng July-September 2015-16 from Rs 181 in the previous quarter, while it was Rs 150 in the corresponding period last year.

The operator’s total revenue also increased 0.7% to Rs 23,670.9 crore during the period under review from Rs 23,835.7 crore in April-June quarter of the ongoing fiscal and 4.3 % up from July-September period of the last fiscal, when the company’s total revenues were at Rs 22,845 crore.

Airtel’s voice ARPU during the period under review fell at Rs 140 from Rs 148 during the previous quarter, while it was at R158 during the corresponding period an year ago. Similarly Voice Realization per minute stood at 34.58 paise during July-September of the ongoing fiscal from 34.93 paise in the preceding quarter, while it was 37.69 paise during July-September 2014-15. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) were R8,265.3 crore during the quarter from Rs 8261.7 crore, while it was at Rs 7,749.4 crore in the year-ago period. “Airtel’s revenue growth in India has accelerated to 13.3 % in Q2 on an underlying basis, the highest in the last 12 quarters. With the commercial launch of 4G services across 334 towns and roll-out of 3G services in our gap circles, we are now best positioned in the industry to leverage the fast growing data market,” Bharti Airtel MD and CEO (India and South Asia) Gopal Vittal said in a statement.

Mobile data revenue contributed 21.5 % of India revenues, up from 14.5 % during the same period an year-ago.

The company’s total debt  at the end of September 30 stood at $1076.6 million (Rs 70,777 crore) against $1068.7 million (R68134.5 crore). Africa performance improved with underlying revenue growth of 5.1% in second quarter.

“Strong demand is being witnessed both in voice and data with our consumption increasing by 19.5% and 104.5% respectively,” Airtel Africa MD and CEO Christian de Faria said.