Palestine’s incumbent telecom operator, Paltel, made a net profit of JOD 45.3m ($63.9m) in the first half of 2013, an increase of 9.5% compared to the same period last year.

Earnings per share increased to reach JOD 0.344 by end of H1 2013, compared to JOD 0.314 end of H1, 2012.

Paltel’s operating revenues increased by just 0.1% year on year to reach JOD 183 million in the first half of the year.

Revenues for data and fixed operating segments increased by 29.5% and 9.8%, respectively, whereas the revenues generated by mobile and media segments decreased compared to H1, 2012.

The telco said that most of its profit ratios increased during H1 2013 compared with the same period in 2012. The gross profit margin, EBITDA margin, and net profit margin increased to reach 79.3%, 43.4%, and 24.8% respectively.

The total number of subscribers across mobile, fixed and ADSL grew by 2% to reach 3.23 million by end of H1. This resulted from the growth in the subscriber base of all the operational segments, Paltel said.

Monthly mobile ARPU declined by 5.1% in the to JOD 8.7 at the end of H1 2013 compared with JOD 9.2 as end of 2012. Fixed services ARPU decreased by 0.3% to JOD 13.57. ARPU for data services increased by 2.7% to reach JOD 10.0 compared with JOD 9.7 by end of 2012.