Japan's NTT posted anet profit slide of 33% for the six months through September on increased marketing and depreciation costs, an Associated Press report said.
But the company also raised its full-year profit outlook due to improved profit forecasts at group companies as well as changes in depreciation estimates and a provision for unused prepaid telephone call cards, the Associated Press report said.
The report said net profit for the April-September period fell to 195.2 billion yen ($1.73 billion) from 291.5 billion yen a year before, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement.
Higher marketing costs at NTT DoCoMo helped account for the fall, as well as larger depreciation of fixed-line facilities, NTT said.
Group revenue edged down 1.2% to 5.188 trillion yen ($46.1 billion) in the April-September period from 5.249 trillion a year before, as income from NTT's fixed-line telephone business continued to shrink, the Associated Press report further said.
But its broadband service and system integration operations remained strong.
The company did not break down earnings by quarter.
The report further said looking ahead, NTT raised its earnings outlook for the fiscal year through March to a group net profit of 530 billion yen ($4.71 billion) on revenues of 10.6 trillion yen ($94.1 billion).