BT reports rise in 'new wave' turnover

BT Group has reported "new wave" turnover at £1.14 billion is up 35%, and now represents a quarter of group turnover, as the third quarter figures were published today.

Commenting on the third quarter results, BT Group Chief Executive Ben Verwaayen said: “Our transformation strategy has now delivered underlying revenue growth in four consecutive quarters, a significant milestone. We have seen new wave growth of 35 per cent.

“Broadband DSL connections were more than 800,000 in the quarter, a new connection every 10 seconds of every day. We expect to achieve five million broadband DSL connections a year ahead of target.

“Our global ICT presence is building strongly and our Global Services revenues grew by 10 per cent in the quarter."

BT's "new wave" turnover is mainly generated from Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions and managed services, broadband and mobility. ICT turnover grew by 21% to £738 million. Broadband turnover increased by 98% to £253 million. Mobility turnover at £55 million achieved growth of 112%.

However, turnover from traditional businesses declined by 8%, a decline that BT said reflected "regulatory intervention, competition, price reductions and also technological changes that we are using to drive customers from traditional services to new wave services".

Mr Verwaayen said that the third quarter and nine month results justified the confidence in a strategy that was "transforming BT and delivering long-term growth in shareholder value."

Excluding the impact of regulatory mobile termination rate reductions, group turnover at £4.58 billion, was up 3%.

Pre-tax profits at £545 million were up 4% and BT reported that net debt at £7.94 billion was 10% down on the previous year.

Broadband end user figures stood at 4.1 million as of December 31, 2004 and BT made a record 813,000 DSL connections in the quarter.

(SP)