Bharti Airtel swings to quarterly profit on subscriber gains

Bharti Airtel swung to a quarterly profit on Wednesday, as the Indian telecom firm added more subscribers and saw higher data usage during the coronavirus-led work-from-home trend.

With the December-quarter profit, India’s second-largest telecom operator has snapped a streak of six loss-making quarters during which the company has seen a growth in market share even as it grappled with a tariff war and demands to pay massive government dues.

Airtel’s subscriber base in India grew to 336.2 million, with the company adding 12.9 million 4G subscribers during the last three months of 2020 to reach 165.6 million.