Rostelecom, the country's biggest long-distance telephone company, said Tuesday that its profit almost doubled last year, boosted by new services such as Internet access.

Net income increased to 2.8 billion rubles ($119.2 million), from 1.5 billion rubles a year earlier, the company said. Sales rose 5 percent to 64.6 billion rubles, under international accounting standards.

"Developing and promoting new products and services allowed the company to achieve a considerable growth in revenue in promising and priority segments such as data transmission," chief executive Konstantin Solodukhin said in a statement.

Internet sales rose more than fivefold to 1.1 billion rubles.

Rostelecom, the long-distance call monopoly until 2006, owns and operates a nationwide network carrying the bulk of the country's long-distance and international telecoms traffic.

Apart from servicing retail clients, the company provides services to other Russian operators and runs a ground-based network for most of the country's television and radio broadcasting channels.

Rostelecom shares declined 1.5 percent to 279.99 rubles in Moscow.

Sales from international calls fell 7.2 percent to 12.3 billion rubles.

Rostelecom plans to invest around $300 million in its development this year, up from $280 million in 2007.

"As most of these projects will not be completed in 2008, we expect to continue to invest in these projects at a similar rate in subsequent years," Rostelecom said, adding that it would use cash from operations and external financing sources to fund the investment.

Operating income before depreciation and amortization rose 7.6 percent to 11.1 billion rubles. Profit on that basis as a percentage of sales rose to 17.2 percent from 16.8 percent.

Bloomberg, Reuters