Lower revenues and earnings have hit Qatar-headquartered telecoms firm Ooredoo, which has operations across North Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Ooredoo operates in North Africa’s Algeria and Tunisia while the Qatari firm earlier this year withdrew a bid to buy Vivendi’s stake in Morocco’s largest mobile operator Maroc Telecom.

Ooredoo’s unit in Algeria, in particular, is called Nedjma, which started operations in 2004 as Algeria's third mobile operator. According to Ooredoo, Nedjma has become Algeria’s second largest mobile operator with over nine million subscribers in a total market size of over 30 million connections.

Apart from Qatar and North Africa, other markets where Ooredoo has a presence includes Indonesia, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the Maldives, Palestine and Oman.

And this week, Ooredoo reported a 1.4% drop in consolidated revenue from QAR 8.629 million in the third quarter of 2012 to QAR 8.51 million in the same period in 2013. Meanwhile, its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) fell 6.1% from QAR 3.867 million in the third quarter of 2012 to QAR 3.631 million in the same period in 2013.

However, Ooredoo says that a nine month analysis in 2013 reveals that the company’s consolidated revenue has jumped 2.6% while its Ebitda has dropped 3.2%.

The company says that this rise in the first nine months of 2013 has been “fuelled by continued strong performances in Qatar, Algeria and Iraq, whereas competitive dynamics and challenging economic environment impacted business in Kuwait and Tunisia.”

Apart from the mixed results, Ooredoo has highlighted certain positive developments for the period such as winning a mobile license in Asia’s Myanmar and a successful participation in the Algerian 3G licensing process. Nedjma also received a provisional license to operate 3G services from the Algerian Regulatory Authority for Post and Telecommunications.

"Ooredoo has continued to produce strong revenue growth in this period, with particularly impressive performances from Ooredoo Qatar, Nedjma and Asiacell,” said Dr. Nasser Marafih, group chief executive officer of Ooredoo.

"We look forward to a significant step-change in our services in Algeria, where we have received a new 3G license, and in our newest market of Myanmar,” said Dr. Marafih.