Du generated net profits of AED4.1m ($1.1m) in 2008 compared with a loss of AED885m in 2007, according to the company's annual results.

Its revenues climbed 157 per cent to AED4bn for the full year. Its fourth quarter revenues were up 92 per cent at AED1.3bn.

Du launched its mobile phone service in the UAE in February 2007. Unlike most start-up telecoms businesses, it did not have to pay for a mobile phone licence.

The operator had 2.5 million mobile phone customers at the end of December giving it a 25 per cent share of the market.

Etisalat, the former monopoly telecoms operator, controls the remaining 75 per cent of the mobile phone market.

"We are not complacent either in terms of our market share or the global economic environment," said Ahmed Bin Byat, Du's chairman.