Reliance Communications, India's second-biggest mobile carrier by customers, reported a sixth straight quarter of

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falling profits, hit by lower call prices and costs from its heavy debt burden, but the 57-percent slide was lower than expected.

India's mobile market is the world's second-biggest and fastest-growing by customers, but carriers operate under wafer-thin margins. A vicious price war in the crowded 15-player market had sent call prices tumbling in late 2009. No significant price cuts have, however, happened in the past several quarters.

But Reliance Comm, controlled by Anil Ambani, the sixth richest Indian, has lagged rivals in benefitting from the stabilising market and the bruising debt load is a concern.

Reliance Comm has so far been unsuccessful in its fund-raising plans to cut its debt, which stood at $7.1 billion at end-December. The company is looking to sell a stake in its tower business and is also hunting for a strategic investor to sell up to 26 percent in itself, among other options.

Reliance Comm said on Monday consolidated net profit after adjustment of share of minority interest and associates fell to 4.80 billion rupees ($105 million) for its fiscal third-quarter ended December from 11.08 billion rupees in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue fell to 50.04 billion rupees from 53.10 billion rupees reported a year earlier. Reliance Comm has more than 125 million mobile customers, or about 17 percent of the market of 752 million.

A Reuters poll of 12 brokerages had expected the Mumbai-based firm to report a net profit of 3.97 billion rupees on revenue of 52.36 billion.

Reliance Comm executives are among those who authorities are investigating as part of a probe into a telecoms licence row that a government auditor said could have cost the government upto $39 billion in potential revenue.

In a report released in November, the government auditor said Swan Telecom, which was later renamed Etisalat DB, was awarded licences even though a Reliance Comm unit owned more than 10 percent in the firm, a violation of rules.

The auditor also said Swan appeared to have been "acting as a front company" on behalf of the Reliance Comm unit. Reliance Comm has denied any wrongdoing.

Reliance Comm shares, now valued at about $4.4 billion, have lost about a third of their market value this year to be the worst-performing stock among the benchmark index's components. The stock fell about 15 percent last week, and closed 0.3 percent higher on Monday ahead of the earnings announcement.