The combination of higher costs and cut-throat competition forced Bharti Airtel to report a decline in profit for the eleventh quarter in a row.

Airtel, the country's leading mobile phone operator, announced on Wednesday that its net profit in the three months ended September 30 this year slipped 30 per cent year-on-year to Rs 721 crore.

Sunil Tirumalai, vice-president of the investment banking division of Credit Suisse, said in a note that the company's quarterly performance was lackluster. In the note, he said, "The disappointment was on the India mobile business margins, while Africa business has returned to path of margin expansion."

However, total income of the mobile phone company in the second quarter jumped 17 per cent year-on-year to Rs 20,283 crore, from Rs 17,276 crore in the corresponding period in the previous fiscal year.

The company's mobile data business recorded a growth of 77 per cent in the quarter under review from the year-ago period. The company has around 5.4 million active 3G customers in India, of which 4 million are active 3G data customers.

In Africa, the company's loss widened from Rs 427 crore to Rs 539 crore, while its operating margins jumped form 26.4 per cent to 27.1 per cent. Africa ARPU slipped 12 per cent to $6.4.

Following the announcement of the quarterly results, stock in Bharti Airtel shed 1 per cent to Rs 271.1 a share.