16 June 2022

Bezeq Israel Telecom reported a rise in first-quarter net profit after Pelephone mobile phone service and Yes satellite TV unit attracted more subscribers.

The country’s largest telecom group said it made 322m shekels (US$96m) in the first quarter excluding one-time items, versus 299m shekels a year earlier. Revenue rose 1.5% to 2.26bn shekels.

Mobile unit Pelephone - Israel’s third largest mobile operator - recorded quarterly net profit of 56m shekels, up from 8m shekels a year earlier.

The operator said revenue grew 11.5% to 437 million shekels driven by recovery in roaming revenues, growth in 5G plans and total subscribers.

Elsewhere, Pelephone’s subscriber base rose to 2.583 million - 624,000 of them connected to its 5G network - from 2.492 million a year ago.

The company said its new fibre network now reaches 1.25 million households and it has 143,000 subscribers.

Meanwhile, Bezeq’s satellite TV unit Yes posted a net profit of 10m shekels compared to breaking even a year earlier, as it added new subscribers while transitioning to Internet-based broadcasts.