Southeast Asia's biggest telecoms company, Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel), beat forecasts Thursday as its second quarter net profit rose 5.7 percent on the back of strong contributions from mobile phone associates in India and Indonesia.

Net profit for the three months to September was 809 million Singapore dollars (479 million US), well above analyst projections of 707-744 million dollars.

For the six months to September, net profit was 1.605 billion dollars, up 9.5 percent from the previous year.

Operating revenue rose 5.8 percent to 3.30 billion dollars for the quarter and 6.1 percent to 6.52 billion dollars for the half.

SingTel said it may not achieve double-digit profit growth for the current financial year ending March "but this remains an objective in the medium-term."

The company's wholly-owned Australian subsidiary Optus reported an 8.1 percent decline in second-quarter net profit to 150 million Australian dollars (110 million US) because of tougher competition.