The Palestine Telecommunications Company (PalTel) has revealed its third quarter results. The company reported an increase of 8.84% in its revenues to US$356 million, although the net profit declined by 9.6% to US$92 million due to exceptional items. The decline in profits was attributable to the investment losses mainly caused from the company’s share in VTEL offshore operations.

As of the end of September, the number of fixed line subscribers grew by 11.02% to reach 405,947 compared with 365,640 during the same period of last year. Mobile and ADSL subscribers grew by 29.73% and 17.82%, respectively, reaching a customer base of 2.135 million and 102,429 compared with 1.646 million and 86,935 as of the end of Q3-2009.

According to Mr. Ammar Aker, the CEO of PalTel, the Group continues to achieve financial growth due to new strategies in place while closely working with the Ministry of Telecommunications and Information Technology (MTIT) to further the development of the telecommunications sector by promoting competition and serving the Palestinian community to provide optimal services for all its customers.

Mr. Aker added that the restructuring of Paltel Group has allowed  companies to re-focus on core business initiatives and meet the daily challenges of implementing new strategies in respective operations in mobile, fixed and data services. All of this effort has already resulted in a positive impact in terms of growth in subscriber base and the related impact on operational revenue.