Despite the fall, Bharti continued "to sustain its growth momentum across India, South Asia and Africa," company founder Sunil Bharti Mittal said.
Results were hit by a one-off foreign exchange loss of 1.5 billion rupees, and $3.4 billion in rebranding costs for its new Africa operations.
Without the exceptional costs, net profit would have been up 10 percent on a quarter-on-quarter basis and flat on a year-on-year basis, chief finance officer Manik Jhangiani told reporters.
Bharti's share price initially slumped 3.2 percent but rallied to trade up 2.30 percent at 321.85 rupees as investors reacted positively to the figures.
"The operating performance was good, the outlook going forward is positive," said an analyst at a Mumbai brokerage who declined to be named.
The profit was far below analysts' forecasts for profit of around 16 billion rupees but exceeded expectations when one-time costs were stripped out.
The company paid $10.7 billion last June for the Africa business of Kuwaiti telecom operator Zain, vaulting the group into the ranks of the world's top five wireless players by subscribers.
Bharti has completed its integration of its 16-nation African operations "in terms of business model, brand and DNA" and they now are gaining market share, said Bharti Airtel Africa chief Manoj Kohli.
The trick now for Bharti, which pioneered low-cost telecoms in India, is to reduce the high African cost base and win subscribers, and to get subscribers to talk more using lower tariffs.
Bharti is hoping to replicate in Africa the success of its "minutes factory" plan -- a low-cost, high-volume model.
"We have the conviction our decision to enter Africa was the right one," said Kohli. "We're getting all positive signals from Africa" with revenue growth picking up.
Revenues climbed 53 percent at 157.56 billion rupees, swelled by income from its Africa unit and new clients.
Growing saturation of the Indian market and competition on its home turf prompted Bharti to expand to Africa.
Only about one in three Africans have mobile phones, while more than 70 percent of Indians now have connections, according to industry figures.
Bharti, which holds over 20 percent of the Indian market, has been weighed down by a cut-throat price war in the world's fastest-growing mobile sector, where tariffs among the more than a dozen operators have been cut to below one US cent a minute.
Bharti, which has over 200 million customers in 19 countries, said prices in India now were steadying. But its average revenue per user -- known as ARPU, a key performance indicator, fell 14 percent from a year ago in India.
But Bharti began last month rolling out its ultra-fast third-generation (3G) telecom services which analysts say should open up a new profit stream for the company, which paid 2.7 billion dollars for spectrum in an auction last year.
