By P.R. Venkat

Bharti Airtel Ltd.'s fourth-quarter net loss widened more than expected due to an exceptional charge the telecom took on the payment of regulatory dues to the Indian government.

Bharti swung to a net loss of 52.37 billion rupees ($692.63 million) from a net profit of INR1.07 billion in the same period a year earlier, it said late Monday.

The results compared with the INR854 million net loss projected by analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue, however, rose 15% to INR237.22 billion, backed by growth in mobile data traffic

During the quarter, the Indian company took an exceptional charge of INR70.04 billion on account of a reassessment of regulatory costs.

Late last year, India's top court had ruled that telecoms operating in the country need to pay the government in a dispute over licensing fees, which hurt many companies including Bharti. 



  Write to P.R. Venkat at venkat.pr@wsj.com