Bahrain Telecommunications Co, or Batelco posted an increase of 27.5% in profit for the second quarter on Thursday as its cost savings, a better yield on invested monies and a lower amount of interest expense outweighed a drop in revenue.

The former monopoly arrested a sustained decline in earnings, with profits up in five of its nine quarters since the acquisition of most of the nation’s Cable and Wireless division.

Prior to that, Batelco’s profits dropped in 16 of the past 18 quarters dating back to the three months that ended June 30 of 2013.

Batelco’s net profit was 13.31 million dinars or $35.28 million for the three-month period ending June 30, which was up from its 10.44 million the same period one year ago.

Revenue dropped to 92.1 million dinars from its 97 million for the same period one year, with the company blaming competitive pressures in its key markets and adverse currency movements.

For the first six months, the company earned a net profit of just over 27.54 million dinars, which was up from 24.9 million the prior year.

The board approved an interim dividend of 0.01 dinars for each share.

In Bahrain, the company competes with Saudi Telecom and Zain from Kuwait as well as over 10 Internet providers.

Domestic competition prompted the company, which is state-backed, to expand internationally, completing the deal for Cable Wireless in April of 2013, though some parts of the original proposal fell afoul of government regulators.

The company owns Jordanian telecom operator Umniah and is a minority stakeholder in Sabafon a mobile operator in Yemen. It also has minority stakes in companies located in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.

Competition in the telecom sector across the Middle East has become quite fierce the past 10 years. Larger companies from Europe are also entering into the fray with Orange and other huge telecommunications giants wanting to take advantage of the wealth that exists in many of these oil rich countries in the Gulf.