BT Top 6.36 Million Broadband Subscribers as FTTC Passes 11M UK Homes

BT has released its latest results to 30th June (Q2-2012), which saw their retail broadband ISP subscriber base add +85,000 new customers (down from +136k in Q1) to reach a total of 6,365,000. The operators superfast up to 80Mbps capable FTTC (BTInfinity) service also expanded to pass 11 million UK homes (up from 10m in Q1).

The slowdown, which was also reflected in yesterdays Virgin Media results (here), is at this time of year usually down to seasonal factors (e.g. students leaving their temporary accommodation and cancelling contracts).

Separately BT Retail’s share of the superfast broadband (BTInfinity) base increased by more than +150,000 in Q2 to reach a new total of over 700,000, which highlights yet another impressive jump from the +131k added in Q1 and the +95k added in Q4-2011. It shows that uptake is continuing to grow as availability widens.

Meanwhile the BTVision (IPTV) service also grew by adding +21,000 new subscribers (total 728,000), which is down once again from +28k added in Q1 and +39k in Q4-2011. However BT will be hoping for an improvement later this year, which follows their recent win of Premier League Football rights (here) and the forthcoming introduction of YouView technology.

Ian Livingston, BTs Chief Executive, said:

“We have delivered another quarter of profit growth and the 11th consecutive quarter of double-digit earnings per share growth, although our quarterly cash flow was impacted by the timing of working capital movements. There were good performances in BT Retail, BT Wholesale and Openreach while BT Global Services was impacted by the tough conditions in Europe and the financial services sector.

Our financial performance allows us to keep investing for the future. Our engineers are rolling out fibre at pace bringing fibre broadband to over 2m more homes and businesses in the quarter and it’s now available to over 11m premises. Our investment plans are creating around 2,000 jobs in 2012 by recruiting engineers to support our fibre plans and opening four new UK call centres. We continue to make good progress with our investments in the faster growing economies.”

It’s worth pointing out that BTWholesale’s share of broadband lines in the UK market currently stands at 8,577,000, which is a big Q2 improvement (+34,000) on the -8,000 lines lost during Q1-2012. By comparison BT Retail claims that its Q2 net additions (+85k) represented 50% of the broadband market’s wider net additions of 170,000.

Meanwhile BT Groups’ quarterly revenue shrank by -6% to £4,484 million, although its EBITDA grew by +2% to reach £1,463 million. It’s reported that BT Retail’s consumer revenue decreased by 2%, with lower calls and lines revenue partially offset by growth in broadband. The consumer Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) grew from £343 to £350 per year.