THE HAGUE, Wednesday - KPN reported first-quarter net profit down at 313 million euros from 384 million a year earlier. Analysts had forecast a figure of 340 million euros.

KPN's sales were down on the 2006 first quarter at 2.92 billion euros (from 3 billion) and just below analysts forecasts. Operating profit before depreciation and amortisation was in line with forecasts at 1.189 billion. KPN is forecasting an unchanged full-year operating profit on stable sales.

Sales from mobile telephony rose 9.2 percent. KPN Mobile's client numbers in the Netherlands expanded by 7.6 percent to 8.7 million. Post-paid clients represented 45 percent of its clients, up from 41 percent last year. As expected, fixed-line client numbers fell further, by 140,000 on balance.

InternetPlusBellen was relatively less popular. The number of clients for this internet phoning technique dropped to 133,000, after a record number of 247,000 clients opted for this in the 2006 fourth quarter.