Telecom tower company Bharti Infratel said it posted revenue of Rs 3,524 crore (+10 percent) and EBITDA of Rs 1,575 crore (+12 percent) with an operating margin of 44.7 percent in the first quarter ended June 30, 2017.

Profit before tax of Bharti Infratel was Rs 1,095 crore (+10 percent), while operating free cash flow grew 4 percent to Rs 992 crore for the first quarter of fiscal 2018.

“Indian telecom is moving towards a data centric business model as the demand for data is growing exponentially with the nation decisively embracing the digital world,” said Akhil Gupta, chairman of Bharti Infratel.

“There’s significant network rollouts for data coverage and all operators will accelerate their data networks to grab a share in the growing data market,” Akhil Gupta said in a statement issued on Monday.

Bharti Infratel’s telecom towers in India rose to 90,837 in June 2017 from 90,646 in March 2017 and 89,352 in June 2016.

Bharti Infratel said sharing revenue per telecom tower per month was Rs 83,001 in June 2017 as compared with Rs 80,464 in March 2017 and Rs 76,987 in June 2016. Sharing revenue per sharing operator was Rs 35,112 in June 2017 against Rs 35,029 in March 2017 and Rs 35,040 in June 2016.

Bharti Infratel said averaging sharing factor was 2.36 times in June 2017 against 2.30 times in March 2017 and 2.20 times in June 2016.

The Group incurred capital expenditure (Capex) of Rs 5,739 million.

Bharti Infratel owned and operated 39,211 towers with 93,297 co-locations in 11 telecom circles while Indus Towers operated 122,920 towers with 297,867 co-locations in 15 telecom circles.

With Bharti Infratel’s towers and Bharti Infratel’s 42 percent interest in Indus, we have an economic interest in the equivalent of 90,837 towers and 218,401 co-locations in India as of June 30, 2017.

Bharti Infratel said net co-locations added during the quarter were 7,795 on consolidated basis and 4,034 on standalone basis. Net co-locations added during the quarter has impact of exits of 1,048 on consolidated basis and 95 on standalone basis.

Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers had average sharing factors of 2.33 and 2.39 per tower respectively for the quarter ended June 30, 2017.

Consolidated revenue comprises of primarily revenues from co-locations of Bharti Infratel and 42 percent economic interest in Indus Towers and their energy billings. Its consolidated revenue from operations for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 was Rs 35,239 million, a growth of 9.8 percent compared to the quarter ended June 30, 2016.