Pre-tax profit increased 21.8 percent to RM448 million from RM368 million for the same period last year, it said in a statement late Tuesday.
Earnings per share was 9.0 sen, an increase of 36 percent as compared to 6.6 sen per share for the first quarter of 2000.
Telekom said operating revenue climbed to RM2.232 billion for the first quarter, up 9.7 percent over the saame period of last year.
It said the increase in revenue was mainly attributed to growth in the cellular segment.
It said voice telephony continued to be the main source of revenue, contributing 69 percent of operating revenue.
Cellular's contribution increased to 16 percent compared to 10 percent in the previous first quarter while data revenue, including leased lines, comprised eight percent of the revenue, it said.
Telekom said its combined mobile customer base had surpassed the one million mark, reaching 1.07 million as of March 2001.
It has targeted a customer base of around 1.5 million by the end of 2001.
TM Touch's postpaid customers grew at an average of 48,000 customers per month in 2001, it added.
It said the steady growth was attributed to the improvement in network quality and coverage.
It said TMTouch would spend RM900 million to further improve its network coverage and quality.
Telekom said contributions from overseas investments to its profit stood at RM21.3 million, reversing the RM47 million loss for the corresponding period of 2000.
On its Internet service, Telekom said todate it had more than one million registered customers. Telekom currently commands about 60 percent of the Internet access business in Malaysia.
On its fiber-optics network, Telekom said it had the most extensive fiber-optics network in the country totalling 245,00 km, running from the north to south in Peninsula Malaysia and via a submarine cable to Sabah and Sarawak.
Telekom chief executive Dr Md Khir bin Abdul Rahman said while its performance in the first quarter was encouraging, the group would make some adjustments in anticipation of the slower economic growth this year.
Costs would be reduced through on-going business process re-engineering, reduction in cycle time and outsourcing of network maintainance, he said.
In the longer term. he said Telekom expected the number of its employees to decline through natural attrition and voluntary separation schemes.
He said Telekom remain committed in its focus towards the growth areas of mobile and multimedia.
He said it would also continue to upgrade its network to support broadband services.
Dr Md Khir said with the on-going restructuring of the organisation into independent business units, their performances could then be effectively monitored based on set performance targets and this would help to improve the bottom line.
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