Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest wireless carrier by subscribers, posted a quarterly profit rise on Wednesday, helped by users upgrading to costlier plans and ‌ strong growth in its Africa business. Telecom operators in the world’s most populous country have been focused on boosting revenue by encouraging users to move to higher-value plans.

According to a Reuters report yesterday, both Airtel and market leader Reliance Jio have scrapped their entry-level offerings to encourage migration to pricier ⁠options.

India’s telecom sector has witnessed intense competition since Jio’s entry in 2017, with the Reliance unit overtaking peers to command the largest user base.

Airtel’s India user base rose 13.7 percent year-on-year to over 482 million as of March 31, lagging behind Jio’s 524.4 million.

The firm, however, leads in average revenue per user — a key telecom metric — which rose 4.9 percent year-on-year to 257 rupees during the quarter ended March, with the number of 4G ‌and ⁠5G users growing 7.2 percent during the same period.

Airtel’s overall revenue climbed 15.7 percent to 553.83 billion rupees ($5.79 billion), including proceeds from Indus Towers, in which Airtel bought a majority stake last year. Revenue from its Africa unit jumped 40.9 percent to ⁠160.3 billion rupees.

The telco also approved a 282.2 billion rupee share-swap transaction to raise its holding in Airtel Africa by up to 16.31 percent from the current 62.7 percent, ⁠saying the deal would strengthen its stake in the unit and boost earnings per share.

Consolidated pre-tax profit grew 35.8 percent to 132.05 billion rupees. Earlier ⁠this month, Jio reported a 10.2 percent rise in quarterly profit. Smaller rival Vodafone Idea will report later this week.