You'll see this in the newspaper tomorrow, and up on the website sometime soon, but you saw it here first! Today was a good one for du, which is looking more and more like a serious competitor to Etisalat as time goes on. An early story on du's quarterly results - including an absolute whipping of its competitor in the race for subscribers, below: -------------------- Mobile customers continue to join the du network, which added 156,000 new subscribers in the same three-month period that its competitor, Etisalat, lost more than 80,000. In quarterly results published today, du reported a total of 2.9 million active mobile customers. It also said revenues rose sharply, growing by 12 per cent on the previous quarter to reach Dh1.31 billion. "The very good news is, not only are we adding subscribers, but they are spending more than ever before," said Osman Sultan, du's chairman. Profits also grew significantly, more than doubling on first quarter figures to reach Dh115 million. The company now estimates it has a 30 per cent share of the mobile market, although making a direct comparison between subscriber numbers at the two companies is difficult. Etisalat announced a total of 7.26 million subscribers in quarterly results released earlier in the month, but does not report its active subscriber base, which is defined as all customers who have made or received calls and messages in the previous three months. By the end of 2010, du said it aims to have a 35 per cent share of the UAE mobile market. The company also aims to grow usage of mobile broadband on its network, saying devices like the BlackBerry mobile email handset will be a focus moving forward, and reiterating its hope to launch the Apple iPhone. While building its subscriber base through a focus on value-for-money and a series of discount offers, the company said yesterday that as its rapid customer growth inevitably slows, the emphasis will shift to boosting the spending of existing subscribers. "We want to grow, but not at the expense of value for shareholders - we want to grow and profit," Mr Sultan said. "I wouldn't be adding hundreds of thousands of subscribers if they were not generating money."