BT's broadband sales surpass calls revenue

 

Gallery

By Stewart Mitchell

Posted on 10 May 2012 at 12:58

Broadband revenue at BT has overtaken money made from phone calls for the first time, the company said after releasing its annual results.

BT acquired more than a million new broadband customers on its network over the last year, with more than half of them signing up to BT Retail's services, and the rest using the BT's Openreach network via wholesale ISPs such as TalkTalk and Sky.

According to BT Retail, its broadband customer base grew by 10% during the financial year to 6.3 million subscribers.

Although revenue was down 6% to £18.9bn, pre-tax profit leapt 42% to £2.5bn, with cost-cutting a key part of the picture.

It’s the first time broadband revenues at BT Retail surpassed telephone call revenues, with broadband making £366m versus calls at £362m

The company said broadband services were becoming increasingly important to its performance, and in Q4 of its financial year, income from its retail broadband surpassed its traditional cash cow of call charges.

“It’s the first time broadband revenues at BT Retail surpassed telephone call revenues, with broadband making £366m versus calls at £362m,” a spokesperson told PC Pro.

Fibre progress

The revenue announcement came on the same day that BT said it had passed a landmark 10m premises with access to its fibre network.

According to BT, more than one in 20 people with access to fibre services were taking them up, with the company claiming 550,000 customers on its BT infinity FTTC and FTTP services.

For the full story on Britain's fibre network, pick up this month's issue of PC Pro