Phone Market Price War Hits Bharti Airtel's Quarterly Profit

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel, India's top telecoms operator, posted a near 77 per cent fall in second-quarter profit, hurt by fierce competition in the country's telecoms sector after the entry of an upstart rival.

Profit fell to Rs343 crore ($52.98 million) in the quarter ended Sept. 30 from Rs. 1,461 crore a year earlier, the New Delhi-based company said on Tuesday.

This was above an average expected of Rs. 303 crore, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Revenue of the company, which operates in 17 countries across Asia and Africa, fell 11.7 per cent to Rs. 21,777 crore.  

The fortunes of operators, such as Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular have been battered by sharply discounted plans and free services offered by Reliance Industries' Jio telecoms unit, backed by India's richest man Mukesh Ambani, that was launched last year.