BT profits surge after broadband growth

The company, which met its 1m broadband connection milestone earlier than expected in June, said that pre-tax profit for the three-month period was £502m, up from £322m in the first quarter a year ago.

EBITDA also improved by 12% to $1.4bn, and BT managed to cut its net debt by a third to £9bn, compared to £13.4m last year. Group turnover, however, remained flat at £4.39bn.

BT said that the 3% decline in the group's core fixed line business was offset by a 23% growth in new wave revenues, including areas such as broadband, mobile and ICT. It added that the consumer sector has seen continued growth, although revenues from SMEs declined.

"Our focus on financial discipline, defending out core business and creating new business streams continues results," BT CEO Ben Verwaayen said in a statement.

At the end of the quarter, BT had an installed base of 1,058,000 ADSL lines, with weekly orders on excess of 25,000, representing a 127% increase over the end of the first quarter last year.

BT's own broadband services, BT Broadband and BT Openworld, account for 51% of the company's total connections with 536,000 subscribers.

In June, the company announced a major deal with Yahoo! that will see it rebrand BT Openworld as BT Yahoo! Broadband in a bid to attract more customers and make its broadband business profitable.





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