Overland Park, Kansas-based telephone provider, Embarq Corp., reported a 25% increase in fourth-quarter profits on Thursday, due to an increase in high-speed internet subscriptions and lower-than-anticipated losses in the fixed-line telephone market.

The company earned a total of $194 million, or $1.28 per share for the quarter, compared to $155 million in the final quarter of 2005, at which time it was still a division of Sprint Nextel. Quarterly revenue was up 0.9% over the year before to $1.62 billion.

This growth was largely due to the addition of 84,000 new high-speed internet customers, bringing Embarq’s total number of broadband customers past the 1 million mark. The company also managed to sign up 16,000 DISH Network television users, and 24,000 wireless subscribers, effectively doubling the size of its cell phone business.

Embarq’s core landline business, meanwhile, ended the year with a total of 6.9 million local telephone customers, marking a 6.1% decline from December 2006. This loss is relatively modest, however, compared to that of many competitors in the sector.