Lagos, Nigeria - The African operations of Indian telecommunications firm Bharti Airtel has raised the company's global revenue for the third quarter of 2011 up to December by 17 per cent.

The local media Friday quoted the company as saying in a statement that the revenue growth was particularly strong in Nigeria and other African operations, which boosted the revenue by 32 per cent to US$1.057 million.

Airtel currently operates in about 13 African countries, including Nigeria,. Ghana, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Malawi, Seychelles and Zambia.

The telecommunications firm also announced that it now has over 243 million customers in 19 countries, adding that its total revenue, which increased by 17 per cent, now stands at US$3,649 million.

According to the audited consolidated International Financial Reporting Standards results for the third quarter and nine months ended December 31, 2011, Bharti Airtel affirmed that its consolidated total revenue for the third quarter grew by 17.1 per cent over that of last year.

The company also said India and South Asia continued its double-digit revenue growth on a year-on-year basis of 12.1 per cent, aided by improvement in realization rates.

In the statement, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharti Airtel Limited, Sunil Bharti Mittal, said: “I am pleased that investments in branding and networks continue to be our focus in India, as we enhance customer experience for voice quality and cater to the ever increasing demand for data. These investments are resulting in healthy growth of mobile revenues.

“In Africa, we have crossed the 50 million customer milestone and are now one of the fastest growing telecommunications companies in the continent.”

Pana 10/02/2012