BT Group pre-tax profits up

LONDON BT Group posted first-quarter revenue and core earnings in line with forecasts on Thursday, putting it on track to meet full-year expectations due to solid demand for fibre broadband and its new Champions League pay-TV offering.

Mr Patterson said BT would work with local bodies over the coming months to see where the funds can be provided early to allow them to invest in increased fibre coverage.

Mr Patterson said BT continued to invest heavily in its superfast broadband network, now reaching 80% of all premises and working with the Government has a target of 95% by the end of 2017.

“Our technical trials of ultrafast broadband using G.fast are progressing well; we’re on target to start large-scale customer trials this summer”, he added. It is only the BT Broadband service down today, July 29, so no phone issues are being reported as yet.

“Research firm CCS Insight’s director of multiplay and video, Paolo Pescatore, said: “[It’s] an encouraging start to BT’s return to the consumer mobile market.

149,000 new customers were added to the Openreach network during the quarter.

Despite the hype around fibre demand, BT is determined not to let us take its investment in the technology for granted. “And we are engaging with Ofcom as part of its Strategic Review of Digital Communications which offers scope for deregulation and the potential to create a more level playing field in pay-TV”, Patterson said.

The service status page of the BT Broadband website now shows a number of logged issues across the telecoms company’s network, with multiple areas around the country, ranging from Newquay to Manchester, affected by outages.

The clawback news in the BT financial results and a statement from DCMS over some the reinvestment of some £129m to extend the reach of superfast broadband might mean that a broadband levy might be put back on the shelf, especially if take-up of fibre based services continues over the next few years.

John Whittingdale, secretary of state for culture, media and sport, claimed that the release of the additional funding is a big win for the taxpayer.

Out of the total revenue, BT Global Services generated £1,543 million (-6 percent), BT Business £749 million (-2 percent), BT Consumer £1,074 million (+3 percent), BT Wholesale £530 million (+1 percent) and Openreach £1249 million revenue.