Declaring its third quarter results, Idea Cellular has announced that its net profit was up by 52.7 per cent at Rs220 crore, as against Rs144.07 crore during the second quarter of the current fiscal year.

Idea's revenues were also higher by 18.52 per cent to Rs2,730.50 crore from Rs2,303 crore. Its EBIDTA was at 25.16 per cent, as against 33.29 per cent year-on-year, and 26.3 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

Idea Cellular also confirmed that it was in a joint venture with Spice Telecom, where it holds around 42 per cent equity in the company, and has received an injection of Rs21 billion. It said that around 11,000 of its towers were covered under the IRU agreement, while its LND network is expanding well.

Idea said that the capital expenditure for financial yaer 2008-09 was of around Rs6500 crore, and the same for the next financial yaer would be around Rs60 billion. Its rent paying sites increased form 8721 to 21459 in the period between 31 December 2007 and 21 December 2008.

Idea claimed the top slot player in four circles of India, while saying that though investments are higher this year, they may climb down during the next.

The Aditya Birla Group telecom company also announced that it has partnered with Worldwide Media as the title sponsor for the 54th Filmfare Awards.

Reports quoted Idea Cellular's chief marketing officer Pradeep Shrivastava as saying that the partnership would help the company improve the promotion of the brand, and that it was looking to reach new subscribers as well as provide good content to current customers through such partnerships.

The 54th edition of the Filmfare Awards are to be hosted in Mumbai on 28 February, 2009.

Idea Cellular plans to use content generated as part of the event to leverage it through contents, which it said would add to the value of the brand. Reports suggested that the company views the partnership as an opportunity to woo customers in the South Indian market through the Filmfare Awards.