Sales Surge as France Telecom Continues Foreign Expansion

France Telecom (FTE Quote) reported surging nine-month sales Tuesday, as the former state-run French monopolist continued its push to become a force in global telecommunications.

Spurred by strong revenue growth in its wireless and overseas units, sales increased 22% to 24.0 billion euros ($20.7 billion) from 19.7 billion euros in the same period last year.

Whereas international revenues spiked 135% for the first nine months of 2000, revenues in France increased a paltry 6.6%. A 44.6% jump in sales from its domestic mobile unit helped offset a 3.4% drop in the company's domestic fixed-line revenues. After investors digested the figures, France Telecom's shares closed down 0.30 euro, or 0.3%, at 119.70.

Like most of Europe's incumbent telcos, France Telecom has had to branch out internationally as ever-increasing domestic competition eats into once secure and fat margins. While France Telecom still retains more control over its home market than either Deutsche Telekom(DT Quote) or British Telecom(BTY Quote) do in their home markets, it has recently splashed out over 50 billion euros -- most notably on wireless operator Orange -- to expand beyond its boarders. ...