However, service revenue growth improved to 6.4 per cent as against 5.3 per cent in the previous quarter as voice revenue returned to growth and regulatory impacts came down, the London-based company said in a statement. Data browsing revenue growth of 22.3 per cent is lower from the pace of prior quarters, reflecting lower customer growth, which it attributed mainly to the reversal of leap-year effect and lower intra-circle roaming revenues. Voice revenue returned to growth as competition eased, despite lower average minutes of use per customer. Excluding regulatory drags, including MTR cuts, roaming price caps and an increase in service tax, service revenue grew 7.7 per cent compared to 10.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of the prior fiscal year, the company said. Total mobile customers rose 1.4 million giving a closing customer base of 199.4 million as of end June.

Source: The Hindu July 22, 2016 10:07 UTC