The telecommunications giant said its net profit for the three quarters rose 9.4 percent from a year earlier to 458.3 billion yen ($5.6 billion).

Operating profit rose 12.4 percent to 1.06 trillion yen, on sales of 7.54 trillion yen, up 0.2 percent.

Job cuts in its regional fixed line operations helped boost the bottom line, it said.

But income from fixed-line and mobile voice calls fell.

For the year to March, the company expects a net profit of 500 million yen and operating profit of 1.18 trillion yen on sales of 10.14 trillion yen.