Oct 21 Idea Cellular Ltd, India's third-biggest mobile operator, posted a quarterly net profit slightly below analysts' expectations, as fewer people made voice calls.
Net profit after tax was 8.09 billion rupees ($124.2 million) in the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with 7.56 billion rupees a year earlier.
Analysts, on average, expected a profit of 8.26 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Idea, part of the Aditya Birla conglomerate, posted consolidated revenue of 86.89 billion rupees, 1.2 percent lower than a year earlier. ($1 = 65.1600 Indian rupee) (Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui and Nivedita Bhattacharjee in Mumbai; Editing by Anand Basu)