(Associated Press via NewsEdge) NTT reported a 12% drop in fiscal first-half profit, as Japan's top telecommunications company fought sluggish profits at its mobile phone and fixed-line telephone subsidiaries.
NTT left unchanged its earnings forecast for this fiscal year through March for a 500 billion yen ($4.3 billion) profit on 10.8 trillion yen ($91.8 billion) sales.
The company posted group net profit of 291.5 billion yen ($2.5 billion) in the first half ended September 30, down from 330.7 billion yen the same period a year earlier.
Sales inched up 0.3% to 5.25 trillion yen ($44.6 billion) in the six-month period from 5.23 trillion yen the previous year.
The former government monopoly has been increasing revenue from Internet data transmission, but that didn't offset faltering profit from its fixed-line business and mobile carrier unit. The company didn't break down quarterly numbers.
NTT DoCoMo, the company's mobile carrier, still dominates the Japanese market, but prices have been dropping because of intensifying competition after the arrival of number portability last month.
NTT said it had its eyes on the potential of Internet-related services such as social networking and blogging although income from voice transmission fell.
The company has been wooing more users to its broadband service using optical fiber, which is among the fastest type of broadband available around the world.
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