The net profit of Uralsvyazinform, the mobile and landline operator went down by 27.3% last year (from 3,685,300,000 RUR in 2007 to 2,677,900,000 RUR in 2008). The company’s sales revenues dropped by 17.6% (from 8,649,300,000 RUR in 2007 to 7,124,600,000 RUR in 2008), while its pre-tax profit plummeted by 25.2% (from 5,546,400,000 RUR in 2007 to 4,146,400,000 RUR in 2008).

At the same time, the company’s expenses rose by 9.7% (from 30,503,400,000 RUR in 2007 to 33,456,400,000 RUR in 2008), with less money spent on personnel and agents’ fees and more money spent on capital consumption, call-finishing and Internet access services, and greater leasing payments.

In addition, Uralsvyazinform reports to have made 10.3% of its staff redundant last year: the figure went down from 26,218 employees in 2007 to 23,520 people in 2008.

Nevertheless, the operator’s revenues went up by 3.6% (from 39,152,600,000 RUR in 2007 to 40,581,000,000 RUR in 2008), with 9,980,000,000 RUR worth of investments (37% of which was directed to new services development (broadband Internet access mainly), 22% of which was spent on landline development, 20% of which was spent on infrastructure development, and 8% of which was spent on IT projects for businesses).