Oct 28 Reuters Bharti Airtel reported an over twofold rise in its secondquarter profit on Monday, as the telecom operator39;s first tariff hike in over two years boosted its revenue per user.

India39;s No.2 wireless carrier39;s consolidated net profit jumped 168 to 35.93 billion rupees 427.49 million in the JulySeptember quarter.

Bharti Airtel had a onetime loss of 8.54 billion rupees during the quarter resulting from a unit39;s foreign exchange loss due to currency devaluation.

The company39;s average revenue per user ARPU, a key performance metric for telecom firms, where Airtel leads its rivals by a wide margin, rose 10 sequentially to 233 rupees.

This is higher than Reliance Industries owned Jio39;s 195.1 rupees for the same period.

All three Indian mobile carriersJio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea  increased their tariffs in June for the first time in nearly three years, aiming to recoup billions invested in 5G technology.

While the companies had not raised tariffs since 2021, they spent heavily on boosting their infrastructure and are now moving away from aggressive competition for market share towards increasing profitability.

Earlier this month, Jio posted a 23 jump in profit driven by the rate hikes, while Vodafone Idea is yet to post results.

Bharti Airtel39;s user base fell 0.7 sequentially to 407 million as of Sept. 30, hurt by users switching to cheaper alternatives after the tariff hike.

Its revenue rose about 12 to 414.73 billion rupees and…