Japan's NTT Docomo has reported an 11% year-on-year increase in net profit for the nine months ending in December to 654.28 billion yen ($5.99 billion).
The operator's strategy of diversifying beyond core telecoms services helped compensate for a 3.2% decline in operating income from Docomo's telecommunications business to 720 billion yen.
Operating income from “other businesses” - which encompasses enterprise IoT solutions, system development, sales and maintenance services and customer support services such as its mobile device protection service and remote support offering – by contrast grew 57.1% to 62 billion yen.
Total operating revenue for the quarter increased 3.6% to 3.59 trillion yen, with telecoms business operating revenue up by 132.4 billion yen to 2.94 trillion yen. Mobile revenue grew by 62.4 billion yen while fiber broadband revenue increased by 74.6 billion yen.
But an increase in cost of sales, network related and other operating expenses all contributed to the decline in total operating income from the Docomo's telecoms business.
Docomo's 4G base station footprint meanwhile increased to 175,100, of which 95,000 are “premium 4G” enabled base stations capable of providing LTE-A services at speeds of up to 788Mbps in 241 cities nationwide.
For the full financial year, Docomo is forecasting a 3.6% increase in operating revenue to 4.75 trillion yen and 13.4% higher net profit of 740 billion yen.