Telecoms giant BT has reported second-quarter revenue of stg£4.3bn and half-year revenue of stg£8.7bn. The company said its fibre footprint has increased to 21m premises in the UK.
For the half year, BT reported pre-tax profits of stg£1.3bn, up 10pc on last year. For the second quarter, pre-tax profits were up 13pc to stg£690m.
“This was a solid quarter, with results slightly ahead of market expectations as we reduced costs and grew EBITDA,” said Gavin Patterson, chief executive of BT Group. “Profit before tax was up 13pc.
“Our consumer business continues to perform well thanks to the impact of BT Sport, where Premier League audiences are up around 45pc on average. Fibre is also driving growth with one in three of our retail broadband customers enjoying super-fast speeds.
“Our fibre footprint has increased to more than 21m premises and will continue to grow. We continue to see strong demand across the market for the faster speeds that fibre offers.
“Further improving customer service remains a priority and Openreach is recruiting an additional 500 engineers to help us better serve our customers. We have also launched a range of new cloud-based products and services aimed at the business market,” Patterson said.
BT Ireland rises on wholesale broadband and BT Sport
BT’s all-Ireland operations reported a 1pc increase in revenue, which it said was driven by multinational and wholesale customers, as well as uptake of fibre broadband across Northern Ireland.
Wholesale growth in Q2 was driven by increased revenue in the Republic of Ireland through higher customer volumes on wholesale broadband and BT Sport offerings.
BT’s Irish business divisions secured a number of deals with major indigenous and multinational corporations seeking global networking capability and IT services.
Deals signed include a new three-year contract with Kingspan for global connectivity, managed services and data centre solutions.
Product development in the quarter included BT Inbound Contact Global Service and the launch of BT Cloud Contact.
“Our all-island BT Ireland performance for the quarter is strong, with underlying top and bottom line growth,” said BT Ireland CEO Colm O’Neill.
“Revenue is up 1pc year-on-year and profits are also up. Success this quarter was driven by increased revenue from our major customers, both multinational and wholesale, the continued uptake of fibre broadband across Northern Ireland and ongoing cost control across the business.”
