BT sees 13% drop in profit but strong fibre adoption

UK incumbent BT has reported a 13 per cent drop in year on year profit for the first half of 2013. Compared to 2012, the firm’s income fell to £948m in the half year ending September 30, while revenue dropped just one per cent to £8.94bn.

CEO Gavin Patterson insisted the financial performance for the period was good, as the firm saw growth in earnings per share and free cash flow.

“This has been our strongest ever quarter for fibre take up with Openreach net connections up 70 per cent. Our fibre network now passes more than 17 million premises. It is open to all and many other service providers have now got behind it,” he said.

He added that the firm’s latest TV play, BT Sport, made a “confident start and is already delivering for viewers”. More than two million customers are signed up to it, he said, and BT’s wholesale contract with Virgin Media means it is available to around four million homes in total.

“It is also delivering for the business, helping us achieve a record 93 per cent share of broadband net adds in the quarter, our lowest line losses for five years and 4 per cent revenue growth in our BT Retail Consumer business,” said Patterson.