India's No. 1 Indian mobile carrier, and the world's No. 4 by customers, Bharti Airtel Ltd., reported a 50% fall in quarterly profit that capped a third straight year of declining earnings. Net profit fell to R5.1 billion ($94 million) for its fiscal fourth quarter to end-March, from R10.1 billion a year earlier on revenue up 9.2% to R204.5 billion. But the company's subscriber growth and usage trends along with easing competition suggest the worst may be over.
With over 700 million SIM cards in continent of 1 billion, mobile penetration, in terms of the percentage of the population using the service, is far lower than previously thought.
