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BT Broadband reaches 4.7 million customers
Friday 13th February 2009, by Daniel King
BT continues to lead the way in the UK broadband market, with a total of 4.7 million subscribers now using the service.
The operators released its results for the final quarter of 2008, revealing that an additional 83,000 customers signed up for its retail broadband packages during the three-month period.
This ensured that BT remains the most popular broadband provider in Britain, despite stiff competitions from rivals including Sky, Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Media.
Its broadband success comes despite the figures revealing that overall pre-tax profits fell by more than 80 per cent, largely due to the company's struggling Global Services division.
Ian Livingston, chief executive of BT, said: "Three of our businesses performed ahead of expectations in the quarter and the group, excluding Global Services, delivered the best year on year profit growth for five years."
"However, as previously announced, the group results have been severely impacted by the performance of our Global Services division," he added.
Despite this setback, the firm revealed that it had also added a number of additional locations to its BT FON and Openzone networks, while use of its internet protocol television service BT Vision had also crept up slightly since the third quarter.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times reports that BT could be encouraged to spend £1.5 billion on a superfast broadband network in the UK after telecoms regulator Ofcom said its rules would not prevent the company from making a return on its investment.
Ofcom claimed that its planned regulation for next-generation broadband in the country would still allow BT to profit as it would be afforded "considerable pricing freedom" with its wholesale charges.
