BT reports profit growth ahead of 5G trial in East London

Telecoms giant BT Group plc generated profit growth against a decline in revenues during its first quarter.

The company recorded a pre-tax profit of £704m in the three months to June 30 2018, up 68.4% from £418m in Q1 2017/18.

Revenues for the quarter were down, falling from £5.84bn in 2017 to £5.72bn this year.

BT saw year-on-year sales growth of 2% in its consumer arm, but the uptick was offset by decreases of between 2% and 8% across its other core businesses (Wholesale & Ventures, Business & Public Sector, Global Services and Openreach).

Gavin Patterson, BT chief exec, said: “We’ve made a good start to the year. We are making positive progress against our strategy.

“Our customer experience metrics continue to improve and we have seen the successful launch of new converged products including BT Plus, our first consumer converged offering and 4G Assure, for business customers. Initiatives to transform our operating model have seen a gross reduction in c.900 roles across the group and improved cost performance.”

In October, BT’s EE network is launching the UK’s first ever 5G with a trial of the service in East London.

Mr Patterson continued: “EE continues to maintain its network leadership. Openreach continues its FTTP network deployment and is currently building to c.10,000 premises per week.

“Our outlook for the year remains unchanged.”