NEW DELHI, INDIA: Bharti Airtel Ltd, India's top mobile operator, reported a small rise in quarterly profit growth, broadly in line with expectations, as a vicious price war hits margins in the booming industry.

India, the world's fastest-growing mobile services market, is signing up over 14 million users a month, but competition is getting fiercer as new entrants slash call rates to grab subscribers.

Global players such as NTT DoCoMo and Telenor are pushing down call rates to as low as 0.7 U.S. cents a minute as they seek a foothold in a market expected to double to 1 billion users by 2014.

New Delhi-based Bharti, in which Southeast Asia's top phone firm SingTel owns more than 30 percent, continues to focus on robust market share despite the "hyper competition" in the market, Chairman Sunil Mittal said in a statement.

Bharti said net profit rose 2 per cent to Rs. 2210 crore ($478 million) under U.S. accounting rules in its fiscal third quarter ended December from Rs. 2159 a year ago.

Revenue rose 1 per cent to Rs. 9772 crore from Rs. 9633 crore. A Reuters poll of 12 brokerages had forecast a fall in net profit to Rs. 2096 crore on revenue of Rs. 9710 crore.

Bharti added 8.4 million mobile users in the quarter to reach a total of 119 million by end-December.

Shares in Bharti, which rose to Rs. 329.80 soon after the announcement of the financial results, came down to Rs. 320.35 at around 10.40, down by 0.56 per cent compared to the previous day's closing of Rs. 322.15.

Bharti shares had fallen 21 per cent in Oct-Dec underperforming the broader market that rose 2 per cent. Bharti and rival Reliance Communications were the only two stocks that fell in 2009 in the main index .BSESN, which jumped 81 per cent.