MADRID -- Germany's Deutsche Telekom [se: de:dte] on Thursday reported a 7.2% rise in third-quarter net profit to 959 million euros ($1.42 billion), against a net profit of 895 million euros in the year-ago period, helped by cost-cutting and improvements in efficiency. A survey of analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires was forecasting net profit of 901 million euros. Net revenue increased by 5.2% to 16.26 billion euros, against 15.45 billion euros. Domestic revenue rose 0.6%, while international revenue rose 9.2%. Deutsche Telekom confirmed its guidance for 2009. "We have continued the positive trend of the second quarter and have picked up the pace," said Rene Obermann, chief executive officer of Deutsche Telekom.

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