Telefonica posts higher profits

MADRID: Spain’s Telefonica, Europe’s third-largest phone company, said its April-June net profit jumped 70.4 percent to 1.89 billion euros ($2.09 billion) thanks to a recovery in its domestic market.
Total revenues rose 12.3 percent to 11.8 billion euros as Spain’s economic recovery boosted demand for packages of broadband, television and phone services.
Telefonica has restructured its business in Spain by investing in improved networks, raising prices and focusing more on higher-spending clients, as it sought to reverse years of declining revenues in its domestic market.
Fixed communications, which include high-margin optic fiber and pay-TV contracts, grew on the quarter, helping to offset a continued fall in its mobile phone business, where it faces stiff competition from low-cost carriers.
The company said its home fiber network in Spain is the largest in Europe, with 12.5 million clients at the end of June.
Telefonica chairman Cesar Alberta said the company’s Spanish division “reached revenue stabilization” in May and June for the first time since December 2009.