Japan's Softbank has reported a record 73% increase in revenue for the six months ending in September, thanks to its high-profile acquisition of US operator Sprint.
Softbank's net sales for the half-year reached 2.6 trillion yen ($26.5 billion), of which 800 billion yen came from Sprint. Excluding this contribution, revenue still increased by 300 trillion yen year-on-year.
A presentation to investors shows that the Sprint revenue inflow allowed the company to surpass rivals DoCoMo and KDDI by net sales for the first time since at least 2005.
Net profit meanwhile soared 84.1% to 394.9 billion yen, nearly 100 billion yen ahead of DoCoMo's equivalent profit for the period, and more than twice the net income of KDDI.
Assisting profit was Softbank's strong 40% market share of sales of the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. Unlike other iPhone models, Apple launched these devices in Japan on their opening weekend.
Softbank was once the sole Japanese carrier for Apple's iPhone, and appears to still be benefiting from this former exclusive. KDDI's au got in on the act in 2011, but DoCoMo had held off on offering iPhones until the iPhone 5S and 5C.
In other Softbank news, Ericsson announced that the operator will deploy its end-to-end VoLTE solution over its 4G network. Softbank has contracted Ericsson to upgrade its mobile core network with an IMS core and new VoLTE software.
Ericsson will also deploy SRVCC (Single Radio Voice Call Continuity)functionality to facilitate handover between LTE and W-CDMA until Softbank can achieve nationwide 4G coverage.
Softbank also disclosed it has completed the $1.53 billion investment in mobile game company Supercell, in a deal first announced last month.