ISLAMABAD, Oct 28: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) registered an increase of Rs40 million in its revenue during the first quarter ended September 30, 2004.

The board of directors of the PTCL at its meeting which was presided over by its Chairman Zafar A. Khan on Thursday approved the un-audited account of the company, a press release issued here said.

The company's total revenue for the first quarter was Rs18.325 billion as compared to Rs18.285 billion of the corresponding period of last year, showing an increase of Rs40 million.

Domestic revenue was Rs14.345 billion compared to Rs13.579 billion last year showing an increase of Rs766 million (5.4 per cent) owing to a reduction in the average settlement and provision for regulatory charge on international revenue for traffic terminated networks.

These impacts were, to some extent, offset by a healthy growth of 16.6 per cent in the international incoming traffic.

The operating expenses for the period showed no change compared to the corresponding period of last year at Rs8.543 billion. A nominal increase of 4.7 per cent in the operating expenses is in line with inflation.

The after-tax profit for the quarter ended September 30, was Rs6.282 billion compared to Rs6.343 million of similar period of last year. Hence, the earningper share came to Rs1.23, remained almost at the same level as of the corresponding quarter of last year.

The company has accelerated network expansion with a view to broaden its customer base at a faster pace.

"During this quarter alone, we have added a number of 340,000 new telephone connections. With the deployment of new access technologies, like wireless local loops (WLL) and optic fibre network (Ofan), the roll-out of telephone connection would gather momentum in the coming months, leading us to the achievement of our highest ever sales target of 2 million for the year 2004-05," Mr Khan said.

The WLL service has already been launched successfully in five towns/cities to be expanded to additional 153 sites throughout the country, he added.