Demand for mobiles boosts Bharti

As Indians become richer, the demand for mobiles increases

The telecoms arm of Indian group Bharti has reported a 79% rise in quarterly profits as growing prosperity has meant more people are getting a mobile phone.

Bharti Airtel said low tariffs and rising middle class incomes allowed it to win four million new customers between July and September this year.

This helped it to net profits of 9.34bn rupees ($947m; £501m) in the period.

India now has about 129 million mobile phone users - which equates to about one in nine of the population.

However, it still lags well behind China which has 430 million users in a population of 1.3bn.

Bharti Airtel boasts 27.1 million subscribers in 4,000 towns and cities across India. It also offers broadband and landlines to 1.6 million customers.

"I believe the momentum in customer addition should continue and have no reason to believe growth in subscribers and revenue will fall," said the firm's co-managing director Akhil Gupta.