The TalkTalk free broadband business generated revenues of £47.9m in its first six months, and a loss at the contribution level of £37.7m. At the period end we had 516,000 customers live on voice and line rental services, of whom 421,000 were also receiving broadband. The initial success of the offer significantly exceeded our expectations, leading to increased wholesale broadband costs and an acceleration in customer service recruitment, as outlined in our trading update on 11 October 2006. However, the underlying customer economics of ARPU and margin are very encouraging and we remain confident of the substantial future profitability of the broadband business.

Our immediate operational focus is on the migration of customers from IP Stream, BT’s wholesale broadband platform, onto unbundled lines. In October we migrated 40,000 customers, taking the total base on unbundled lines to 60,000. We are confident that BT Openreach is dedicating an increasing level of resource to facilitate an acceleration in line migration and reduce fault rates.

After the period end we announced the acquisition of AOL’s internet access business in the UK for £370m. Completion is subject to clearance by the EU Competition authorities, which we expect to receive by 31 December 2006. The AOL acquisition not only gives us critical mass in UK broadband by making us the number 3 ISP with over 2 million customers, but also accelerates our content strategy through a long term revenue-sharing agreement with AOL’s Audience operations in the UK.