Bharti Airtel's tower unit Bharti Infratel today reported 18 per cent jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 558 crore for the quarter ended March 31.

The company had reported a net profit of Rs 472 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal year.

Consolidated revenue of the tower firm rose 6 per cent to Rs 2,947 crore for the reported period compared with Rs 2,790 crore last year.

Bharti Infratel Chairman Akhil Gupta said the spectrum auction in March this year was a significant event for the telecom industry with leading operators renewing as well as acquiring spectrum for the next 20 years.

"Most of the new spectrum will be used for 3G and 4G rollouts. The growth in data uptake and the need to monetise this investment at the earliest has already led to a step-up in the rollout of data networks," he added.

Gupta said this momentum is expected to accelerate further in coming years.

"We are entering a phase of high growth and Bharti Infratel is aligned to the operator?s requirement of increased network rollouts," he added.

The company has proposed a final dividend of Rs 6.5 per share in addition to the interim dividend of Rs 4.5 per share earlier.

The total dividend payout for full year, inclusive of Rs 395 crore as tax on dividend, will amount to Rs 2,477 crore.

For the year ended March 31, the company's net profit increased 31 per cent to Rs 1,992 crore, while its revenue was up 8 per cent to Rs 11,668 crore from the previous fiscal.

The total tower base of the company stood at 85,892 as on March 31 along with 182,294 co?locations, while the average sharing factor increased to 2.11 from 2.08 in the same period last year.