The operator reported mobile data revenue of 39.79 billion rupees, up a strong 55.9% from the same period last year.

Total data users increased 28.4% over the same period to 42.6 million, with Vodafone India's 3G subscriber base surging 75.4% to 13.6 million. Smartphone penetration meanwhile reached 28.3%, up 8.8 percentage points from the year before.

But despite this strong growth this still represents only a small proportion of the operator's total wireless subscriber base, which increased 8.2% year-on-year to reach 188.2 million by the end of September.

Vodafone India estimates it has achieved 85% coverage with its mobile operations, including 70% rural coverage. The company had 132,446 cell sites - including 39,774 3G sites - by end-September.

The operator had a revenue market share of around 22.4% by the end of the first quarter of FY16, up 0.4 percentage points year-on-year.

“Driven by the strong uptake in data, our 3G revenues grew 102% YoY,” Vodafone India CEO sunil Sood commented.

Vodafone will launch 4G services in December this year

“We will launch our 4G services beginning December 2015 in 5 circles that are key to our data revenues, and will continue to expand our own 3G coverage to 16 circles across the country. A robust and resilient network architecture with strong backhaul is being built to support the increasing volumes and need for speed from both retail and enterprise customers.”

Telecomasia.net