Swisscom said its first-quarter net profit declined 12 % even though it has had strong growth in the number of mobile phone and broadband customers, an Associated Press report said.
The report said net profit for the three months ending March 31 was 460 million Swiss francs ($375 million), down from 520 million francs in the first three months of 2005. A company statement said the decline reflected a reduction in mobile termination rates and the transfer of its international carrier services to a joint venture with Belgacom SA in the summer of 2005.
Swisscom, a spinoff of the old state-owned PTT, and still majority owned by the government, said sales were 2.38 billion francs ($1.94 billion), down 2.9% from 2.45 billion francs in the first quarter of 2005 and just ahead of analysts' expectations for sales of 2.36 billion francs ($1.92 billion).
But the company would have had revenue growth of just over 1 % without the impact of several one-off items, including a change in mobile termination rates that hit revenue in the quarter by 72 million francs, the report said.