Morocco's former state-owned telecoms operator increased profits at a faster rate than revenues, which were up 5.6 per cent on the same period in 2007.

Revenues were MD7.7bn, compared with MD7.3bn in 2007.

Maroc Telecom had 17.2 million mobile phone customers in Morocco at the end of September, a rise of 18.5 per cent on this time in 2007, but this was offset by an 8.7 per cent fall in the average revenue from each user during the period.

On 29 October, the Moroccan telecoms operator announced it would soon auction a third mobile phone licence.

Maroc Telecom currently shares the mobile phone market with Meditel, which is backed by Spain's Telefonica and Portugal Telecom.