The sole mobile phone operator in North Korea has been found to have posted 26 million U.S. dollars in sales in the communist state last year.

Radio Free Asia quoting a 2009 performance report released by the Egyptian firm Orascom Telecom said Tuesday that some 22-thousand people began using mobile phone services in the North in the fourth quarter of last year. The figure brings the total number of cell phone users in the North to some 92-thousand.

The report, however, did not elaborate on Orascom’s operating profits for the year.

Orascom launched third-generation mobile services in December 2008 through a joint venture with Pyongyang. It signed an exclusive four-year contract to do business in the North.

All mobile phones in North Korea require the use of prepaid phone cards.