Bharti Airtel beats Q1 profit estimates

BENGALURU, Aug 05 (Reuters): India's Bharti Airtel reported first-quarter profit above expectations on Monday as more users paid for faster and higher margin 4G and 5G services.

Consolidated net profit for the first quarter rose more than two fold to 41.60 billion rupees ($495 million), beating analysts' average estimate of 38.69 billion rupees, per LSEG data.

The country's number two telecoms operator by subscribers offers premium internet and bundle plans to its users and has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of growing adoption of mobile internet in the country, thus helping its average revenue per user (ARPU).

Its ARPU, a key performance metric for telecoms, rose to 211 rupees during the quarter, a 1 per cent sequential growth and 5.5 per cent increase from last year.