JOHANNESBURG, Feb 19 Reuters Telkom, South Africa39;s thirdbiggest telecom company, reported flat thirdquarter core profit on Monday, as costreduction initiatives partially offset inflationary pressures, expenses due to power cuts and increased bad debt provisions.

The earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation EBITDA was stable at 2.5 billion rand 132.45 million in the three months ended Dec. 31, the company said in a statement.

But the resulting EBITDA margin at 21.9 decreased, largely affected by product mix at its information and communications technology, or ICT, business BCX, higherthanexpected credit losses on trade receivables as retail and enterprises customers remained under pressure from the weak macroeconomic environment.

Overall group revenue ticked up 2 to 11.3 billion rand, driven by compelling dataconnectivity propositions from the operator39;s mobile and fixed networks.

Mobile revenue was up 4.8 at 5.9 billion rand, while Openserve its fibre business fixed data next generation revenue growth was at 6.2.

Higher recharges by prepaid mobile subscribers, ongoing rollout of fibre network to homes and enterprises by Openserve drove revenue growth, supported by Swiftnet39;s commercialisation of the masts and towers portfolio, the company added.

Telkom said that enterprise demand for hardware and software remained healthy and grew in double digits at BCX but overall revenues were impacted by the continued decline in traditional voice…