Bulgaria's dominant fixed-line telecom, Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC), reported a 15.6% drop in net profit for 2007 on January 31, with revenue rising slightly from the previous year.

Net profit fell to 111.6 million leva for the 12 months ended on December 31 2007, while revenues rose by 1.7% to 1.02 billion leva, according to BTC's consolidated financial statement, published on the company's website. Earnings per share fell to 0.39 leva, compared to 0.46 leva in 2006.

The fixed-line segment continued to provide the bulk of BTC's revenue with 885.1 million leva, while its mobile subsidiary contributed 137.3 million leva.

BTC, the former state monopoly, has been steadily losing customers over the past several years to mobile telecoms and alternative fixed-line service providers.

Its attempts to slow down the rate at which it loses customers to a minimum, however, have proved unsuccessful so far and even drew the attention of Bulgaria's Commission for Protection of Competition, which fined the company for using its dominant market position to gain an advantage over its competitors.