Abu Dhabi – Mubasher: Emirates Telecommunications Group (Etisalat) on Wednesday reported a 0.1% year-on-year rise in total subscribers for the third quarter of 2017.

The number of subscribers stood at 140 million subscribers in Q3-17, up from 139 million subscribers in Q2-17, the data showed.

The company listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) attributed this increase to its strong base of subscribers in the UAE, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Niger, and Afghanistan.

Subscribers in the UAE amounted to 12.5 million subscribers in Q3-17, while subscribers in Morocco reached 56.4 million subscribers.

Meanwhile, the number of subscribers in Pakistan fell 4% year-on-year to 21.6 million subscribers in Q3-17 as the UAE-based company turned to value in the mobile segment.

The telecom firm posted a 26% year-on-year surge in profits for Q3-17 to AED 2.82 billion ($767 billion).

Etisalat achieved a net profit of AED 7.53 billion in the first nine months of 2017, up 4.4% from the prior-year period.