Vodafone India has reported a 4.1% increase in operating profit for the financial year ending in March as a result of strong data revenue growth.
Operating profit, or ebitda, reached 131.15 billion rupees, with the operator recording an ebitda margin of 29.5%.
Revenue grew 10% to 464.35 billion rupees, while service revenue increased 5% to 443.3 billion rupees. Data revenues swelled 45% to 82.63 billion rupees, with total data users growing to 67.5 million, including 27.8 million on 3G or 4G networks.
In the fourth quarter service revenue ARPU stayed flat at 205 rupees, while data ARPU for users on connections faster than 1Mbps increased to 163 rupees from 141 rupees.
Vodafone India attributed the strong data growth to continued increases in smartphone adoption. Smartphone penetration had extended to 32% of the operator's total customer base by the end of March.
Vodafone India recently announced a target of extending its 4G network to cover 1,000 towns across the nation by the end of the year.
The operator's total customer base grew 7.7% year-on-year to 198 million, with 106 million of these coming from rural areas. The company estimates it had a revenue market share of 22.3% for the year.