UPDATE 1-Omantel Q3 profit drops 33 percent as expenses rise

* Q3 net profit 22 mln rials - Reuters calculation

* Analysts had on average estimated 27.50 million

* Co says 9 month profit 83 mln rials

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MUSCAT, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Oman Telecommunications Co's (Omantel) OTL.OM third-quarter profit declined 33 percent, falling short of analysts' estimates, as expenses rose.

The national telecoms provider made a profit of 22 million Omani rials ($57.1 million) in the three months through September, compared with 32.83 million in the year-earlier period, according to Reuters calculations.

Analysts polled by Reuters had on average estimated a third-quarter profit of 27.50 million rials. [ID:nLDE69907O].

Omantel had reported a nine-month profit of 83 million rials, down from 105.8 million in the same period last year.

Its expenses climbed to 224 million rials from 191 million due to "aggressive expansion of 3.5G network and the depreciation resulting from introducing new technologies on the network," Omantel said in a statement on Monday.

State-controlled Omantel's monopoly on the telecommunications market in Oman was broken in 2006 by Nawras, a unit of Qatar Telecommunications QTEL.QA.

Shares of Omantel closed 0.3 percent higher earlier on Monday. The results were released after trading hours. (Reporting by Saleh Al-Shaibany; Editing by Jason Benham and David Holmes) ($1=.3850 Omani Rial)