KDDI Corp., Japan's second-largest telecom carrier, said Tuesday it chalked up a consolidated net profit of 51.32 billion yen in the first three quarters of fiscal 2002.

The April-December figure surpasses the firm's total fiscal 2001 profit of 12.98 billion yen.

Year-on-year comparisons cannot be made because KDDI did not disclose its quarterly results in fiscal 2001.

KDDI attributed the strong performance in the first three quarters of this fiscal year to strong demand for the CDMA2000 1x third-generation mobile phone service, which was introduced in April.

At the end of December, the service had 4.67 million subscribers and accounted for nearly 35 percent of the 13.47 million subscribers to its au mobile phone service.

The April-December profit was also the result of efficient capital spending and cost reductions, KDDI said.

The company reported a consolidated pretax profit of 94.32 billion yen on group operating revenues of 2.09 trillion yen in the first three quarters of fiscal 2002, compared with figures of 78.76 billion yen and 2.83 trillion yen for the whole of the previous year.

For fiscal 2002, which ends March 31, KDDI revised its earnings outlook due to robust performance in the third quarter of the year, as well as the cost of replacing its personal digital cellular phone system with a more advanced code division multiple access system.

The revised outlook forecasts a consolidated net profit of 54 billion yen and a pretax profit of 100 billion yen on group operating revenues of 2.76 trillion yen.

KDDI's previous outlook, released in November, set those projections at 49 billion yen, 90 billion yen and 2.77 trillion yen.

The company expects total dividends paid per share to equal 1,790 yen for fiscal 2002, including an 895 yen dividend paid at the end of the calendar year.