The country's largest telecommunications provider Telekom Malaysia said today its net profit for the year to December more than doubled to RM2.069 billion from RM811.3 million ringgit a year earlier.

Revenue rose 17.6 percent to RM16.399 billion while pretax profit doubled to RM3.133 billion from RM1.52 billion.

The substantial rise in net profit was due to higher revenue, a foreign exchange gain and the absence of an arbitration award compared to the previous year, Telekom said in a statement.

The company had to make a large provision of some RM880 million in 2005 for a legal dispute.

"2006 was indeed a significant year for Telekom where for the first time ever, revenue from our domestic and overseas mobile operations exceeded our traditional fixed line revenue," group chief executive officer Abdul Wahid Omar was quoted as saying in the statement.

The combined mobile operations contributed to 52.2 percent of the total group revenue, he said.

Telekom has two domestic mobile operators, Celcom and Dialog, and PT Excelcomindo Pratama in Indonesia and TM International in Bangladesh.

Abdul Wahid said the fixed line services will still continue to provide a steady revenue stream, adding that Telekom had managed to slow the decline in its fixed services in the second half of 2006.

The company also said it had renewed Abdul Wahid's tenure for a further three years.