Czech T-Mobile 03 Net Profit CZK4.4 Billion Vs CZK2.7 Billion

T-Mobile Czech Republic AS, the country's number two cellular operator, said Wednesday that it increased its 2003 net profit by 63% by adding new clients and boosting the share of higher-spending customers by means of monthly payment plans. T-Mobile Czech, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom AG's (NYSE:DT - News) mobile arm T-Mobile International , had 3.9 million clients at the end of 2003, up from 3.5 million a year earlier. While the company's customer base is still dominated by the clients on pay-as- you-go contracts, the number of customers with monthly payment plans rose 32.3% to 889,000 at the end of 2003, from 672,000 a year earlier. Customers with pay-as-you-go contracts totaled 3.06 million in 2003, up from 2.84 million a year earlier. At the end of 2003, T-Mobile had a 40.7% share of the local mobile telecommunications market, compared with 43.4% held by its key local competitor Eurotel spol SRO (ERP.YY), the mobile unit of leading Czech telecommunications operator Cesky Telecom AS (BAATELEC.PR). The country's third mobile operator Cesky Mobil AS, a unit of Telesystem International Wireless Inc. (NasdaqSC:TIWI - News) , held a 15.9% share of the local market last year.