Bemuda Digital Communications ? the parent company of mobile telephone service provider CellularOne ? has posted strong profits in the region of $4.5 million in 2003.

The results ? with BDC not issuing its own financial earnings report ? were revealed in the earnings report of part shareholder Atlantic Tele-Network. ATN reported that its full year earnings for 2003 had increased by 29 percent to $12.2 million for the year.

ATN holds a 44 percent investment in Bermuda Digital Communications Ltd., which provides mobile telephone services through CellularOne in Bermuda. ATN reported on Friday that $2 million of its total $12.2 million in net income could be attributed to its stake in BDC.

The $2 million earned in 2003 was up from $1.8 million the year before. From that number it can be deducted that BDC earned some $4.5 million last year through its CellularOne operations. The ATN report also showed that CellularOne had seen an increase in its number of subscribers reporting that the Bermuda company had grown its business from 16,600 users at the end of 2002 to 17,800 by the end of last year. CellularOne?s growth would have been against a background of increasing local competition with their now being a host of cellular service providers offering an increasing range of services.

ATN also attributed the high level of income from BDC to its having paid ?careful attention to costs?.

ATN is a telecommunications company headquartered in the US Virgin Islands. Its principal subsidiary is Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company, in which it has an 80 percent stake. In addition to its 44 percent stake in BDC, it also is a shareholder in a number of Caribbean ventures including a wireless TV provider and a Web-enabled outsourcing call centre.

ATN previously tried to gain total ownership of BDC but the move was halted by the Bermuda Monetary Authority.