Partner Q4 results drop, considers impairment on ISP

Israeli operator Partner Communications reported a drop in fourth-quarter revenue to ILS 1.59 billion from ILS 1.76 billion in the year-earlier period, while net profit dropped to ILS 132 million from ILS 304 million. Mobile revenue fell 40 percent to ILS 1 billion, hurt by cuts to interconnection rates and increased churn. ARPU fell to ILS 106 per month from ILS 147 a year ago, while the mobile subscriber base edged up to 3.17 million from 3.16 million a year earlier. The company also increased the number of fixed telephony subscribers to 290,000 from 115,000 over the same period, and it had 580,000 internet subscribers at the end of 2011. Partner said it's examining developments in the ISP market and may still take an impairment charge on its fixed-line assets. Full quarterly results will be released in late March.