20 Jul 2009, 1059 hrs IST

RIYADH – Mobily, Saudi Arabia's second mobile phone network operator, said on Sunday that net profit jumped 49 percent to 1.155 billion riyals (308.7 million dollars) in the first half from a year earlier.

In the second quarter alone, net profit soared 50 percent to 675 million riyals (180.4 million dollars) compared with the year-earlier three months, according to a statement distributed by state news agency SPA.

Mobily, founded by investors led by Etisalat of the United Arab Emirates, entered the Saudi market in May 2005, breaking the monopoly of state controlled Saudi Telecom (STC).

In 2007 the government licensed a third mobile phone network, controlled by Mobile Telecommunications Co (MTC) of Kuwait.

Last year the number of mobile phone subscriptions in Saudi Arabia rose to 36 million although the country only has 24 million inhabitants.

The country has 4.1 million landline subscribers and 7.7 million registered Internet users, according to figures published on Sunday by the Saudi commission for communications and information technology, SPA reported.

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