Local cellular phone provider Cellular One's operations grew by eight percent in the first nine months of this year, according to one of its major shareholders.

Atlantic Tele-Network Inc., which owns 44 percent of Bermuda Digital Communications which trades as Cellular One, also said its share of Cellular One's earnings in the third quarter declined by 22 percent due to an "extraordinary legal expense".

Atlantic Tele-Network Inc. said it earned $532,000 from its stake of Cellular One compared to $679,000 in 2002. For the first nine months of the year, it has earned $1.648 million compared to $1.527 in the same period last year.

Cornelius B. Prior, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of ATN said: "Our Bermuda cellular company managed a modest increase to its leading market share and subscriber base, but experienced higher expense due to the delayed launch of high-capacity CDMA service in the quarter. We expect the results of this business to improve in coming quarters."

ATN tried to buy all of Bermuda Digital Communications earlier this year, but their application was turned down by the Ministry of Telecommunications.