Member Article

BT profits rise 7% in third quarter

British Telecom (BT) announced a 7% rise in profits in its third quarter results, as plans to roll out fibre broadband reach 13 million UK premises.

Like-for-like revenues were up 6% in the three months to the end of December 2012, while adjusted earnings per share grew 8% to 6.6 pence.

BT’s most recent full year results, released in March last year, showed a pre-tax profit of £2,445m and revenues of £18,897m.

Ian Livingston, chief executive, commented: “Our fibre plans are helping to make the UK a broadband leader in Europe […] and we are passing around 100,000 additional premises every week.

“Take-up is growing strongly with around 1.25 million homes and businesses now enjoying the benefits of faster speeds.”

The firm cheered its new Olympic Park-based production facilities, and said faster broadband speeds have allowed it to push into the television and sports markets.

Mr Livingston continued: “Our engineers have worked tirelessly following some of the wettest weather on record.

“Not only did they complete a record number of field visits in the quarter, they also connected a further 281,000 homes and businesses to broadband and helped us grow the number of landlines.

“BT Global Services has also done well securing £1.9bn of new orders, up 17%. We have made progress in a number of areas and delivered solid financial results. These are in line with our expectations for the year, which remain unchanged.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .