Dutch telecom group KPN on Tuesday announced its profits halved in the third quarter to €87m.

Turnover was down to €2.08bn against €2.25bn in the year-earlier period. Operating profit fell 14% to €743m.

The figures do not include those for subsidiary E-Plus which is being sold to Telefónica Deutschland once permission is given by the monopolies commission.

Mobile telephony remained under pressure, the company said. Turnover was down 11% at €375m and operating profit fell 30% to €101m. However, the number of 4G customers grew fivefold.

Hacking

Since the US security organisation NSA hacked into the Belgian telecom company Belgacom, KPN has set up a special team to keep a closer eye on hacking, Nos tv reports. The company has also received extra information from the Belgians on where the weakest links in the network can be found.

‘We have carried out an extra check which did not show up anything unusual, although I cannot give a 100% guarantee,’ CEO Eelco Blok said in a statement.