Broadband boom helps BT ring up welcome profits rise
BT cheered investors as the telecoms group posted a rise in profits, signed more broadband customers and said it would hit financial targets a year early.
Its pre-tax profits in the three months to December, excluding one-time items, rose 18 per cent to 628million.
The firm put the rise down to cost cutting and adding 146,000 household broadband customers during the period.
Good news: BT cheered investors as the telecoms group posted a rise in profits, signed more broadband customers and said it would hit financial targets a year early
BT (up 8.1p at 214p) also said that it would hit full year earnings, excluding taxes and other costs, of over 6bn in March – a year ahead of schedule.
However, its pension deficit has risen to 4.1billion from 2.5billion during the period, hit by low corporate bond yields and higher inflation.
BT plans a national roll out of superfast broadband at 300 megabits per second (mps) by next spring.
The country’s average broadband speed is currently 7.6mps.
Chief executive Ian Livingston said: ‘We have delivered another quarter of growth in profits despite the economic winds.’
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