Telenor, the state-owned Norwegian telecoms firm, yesterday announced a 45 per cent leap in first-quarter operating profits, buoyed by an increase in its mobile and Internet businesses.

Subscribers to the company's Internet and mobile services grew by 60,000 and 81,000 to 460,000 and 1.865 million respectively.

By contrast, Telenor's share of the country's traditional fixed-line voice customers fell from 87 per cent to 82 per cent.

In common with many former telecoms monopolies in other European countries, Telenor is facing intense competition in the newly liberalised Norwegian telecoms sector.

In the period to March 31st, Telenor recorded a 1.12 billion Norwegian krone (€137.4 million) operating profit, a rise of 45 per cent on the previous year's Kr802 million.

Pre-tax profits were up 74 per cent at Kr908 million, boosted by the extraordinary gain of Kr352 million from the sale of Telenor's 68 per cent in Storm, the UK telecoms wholesaler.

Telenor's revenues rose to Kr8.7 billion (€1.1 billion) from Kr7.9 billion.

The company is currently preparing for a partial privatisation in the autumn, initiated by the government following the collapse of Telenor's proposed merger with Swedish group Telia.