Swisscom profits fall, upbeat on new offers

Swiss telecoms operator Swisscom posted Wednesday a slight fall in first half-year earnings but remained positive on new business thanks to a growing customer base. Net profit dropped 3.5 percent to 928 million francs (772 million euros), in line with analysts' expectations. Operating profit fell 4.0 percent to 1.3 billion francs while sales were down 1.8 percent to 5.6 billion francs in the January-June period, Swisscom said in a statement. Noting increased domestic competition, Swisscom said it had made up for this through growth in customers and volume sales. Demand for traditional services such as internet and mobile phones saw only moderate grown -- 4.7 percent and 3.4 percent respectively -- in comparison with new offers such as "triple play," whereby customers sign up for a combined television, internet and telephone deal. In all, this sector attracted 699,000 new clients, a 36.5 percent increase, Swisscom said. The June launch of an unlimited mobile telephone offer whereby customers can make calls, send text messages and surf the internet also attracted 25,000 new clients a week, the company said. The group adjusted its revenue forecasts for 2012 from 11.4 billion francs to 11.3 billion francs but maintained its net earnings forecasts of 4.4 billion francs.