Irish telecoms company Smart Telecom said today results for the first half year were in line with expectations.
The introduction of a Payphone Access Charge has benefited the pay phone division while the company is in the process of agreeing a pan-European partnership which will provide 'significant opportunity' for revenue growth.
Smart, which has a residential customer base of over 50,000 in Ireland, saw pretax losses widen to €4.44 million from €2.16 million a year earlier. The loss per share was €4.30 against €7.70.
Turnover increased by 61 per cent to €9 million, due mainly to the increase in residential customers.
In its outlook, the company said it remains confident and is to focus on becoming a provider of broadband based voice, data and entertainment services.
The group is to "aggressively pursue" opportunities through the utilisation of next generation networks and alternative network infrastructure. The group has benefited from its wholesale line rental, payphones and prepaid cards division.
The firm has invested heavily over the past three years and reported a pre-tax loss of €8.27 million for the year to the end of December 2003. Turnover doubled during 2003 to €12.65 million, up from €6.17 million.